‘Lawless, outlier decision’: Trump classified documents case dismissed

Milwaukee: Donald Trump will no longer face trial for mishandling classified documents after a federal judge he appointed threw out the case, ruling that the prosecutor overseeing the charges was improperly appointed.

In a major win for the former US president days after his attempted assassination, Judge Aileen Cannon – who was appointed under Trump’s administration – filed a court ruling on Monday dismissing the charges.

The move is the second significant legal victory for Trump in as many weeks, following the US Supreme Court’s decision to grant presidents and ex-presidents substantial immunity from being prosecuted for official acts that took place while in office.

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice shows documents seized during the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.Credit: AP

Conversely, it is a major blow for Special Counsel Jack Smith, the former war crimes prosecutor who charged Trump last year after highly sensitive documents were found at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Those documents included information relating to nuclear programs and military vulnerabilities, and to intelligence that should have only been shared with the “Five Eyes” countries, including Australia.

“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the motion, the court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme – the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorising expenditures by law,” Cannon concluded in her 93-page order.

Special Counsel Jack Smith and his prosecutors have laboured to avoid any hint of political motivation.Credit: Bloomberg

Smith’s office said it would appeal Cannon’s decision, which legal experts have slammed. The Trump-appointed judge has long been criticised for making rulings that appear to favour the former president. She has also been accused of unnecessarily delaying the case with long, drawn-out proceedings.

In response to the decision, Noah Bookbinder, a former federal prosecutor and president of Citizens for Responsible Ethics said: “This is a lawless, outlier decision with no basis in statute or case law. It is deeply dangerous for accountability and checks and balances going forward. This decision should and assuredly will be appealed immediately.”

But the ruling was welcomed by Trump and the many Republicans descending in Milwaukee this week for the party’s national convention.

Republican presidential candidate former president Donald Trump. Credit: AP

Trump will be formally appointed as the Republican presidential nominee at the event on Thursday, but his vice presidential running mate was expected to be announced as soon as Monday (local time).

“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump posted on social media.

The classified documents case is one of four trials the former president was due to face. He has also been charged over election interference in Georgia and Washington DC – but both cases have been delayed – and he was recently convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal ahead of the 2016 election.

However, his legal team has long considered the classified documents case to be the strongest one, partly because it related to acts that took place after he left office.

What’s more, of the 37 charges Trump faced, 31 related to the “wilful retention” of classified material in violation of the Espionage Act, a national security law that has been used to target leakers of government secrets, which comes with a maximum 10-year jail term.

The documents in question were taken after Trump left the White House in 2021 and were stored in boxes all over his Mar-a-Lago resort, including “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room”.

Trump has long maintained his innocence.

US President Joe Biden has also been investigated by a separate special counsel over his own handling of classified documents. However, that case was dismissed and the special counsel noted in his findings that Biden’s age and hazy memory would make it challenging to secure a conviction.

“At trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury as he did during our interview of him: as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,” he wrote in his 388-page Justice Department report released in February.

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