A Florida judge appointed by Donald Trump has dismissed the criminal case against the former president on charges of mishandling top secret documents, saying the way that Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed was improper.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon granted the defence motion to dismiss the case on Monday, voiding a prosecution that at the time it was brought was seen as the most perilous of the multiple legal threats Trump faced.
“Former President Trump’s Motion to Dismiss Indictment Based on the Unlawful Appointment and Funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith is GRANTED,” Cannon wrote in her order.
“The Superseding Indictment is DISMISSED because Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”
Judge Cannon made her ruling after lawyers for 78-year-old Trump, argued for a partial stay of proceedings to allow for an assessment of a Supreme Court ruling that a former president has broad immunity from prosecution.
Lawyers for Trump had argued that special counsel Jack Smith was illicitly appointed in violation of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause that his office was improperly funded by the Justice Department.
The decision is a huge victory for Trump, who had been accused of endangering national security by holding onto top secret documents after leaving the White House.
Arriving in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, Trump welcomed the ruling and said that all court cases against him should be dismissed. The former US President is set to be anointed as his party’s champion at the Convention, after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
In the Florida case, he was facing 31 counts of “willful retention of national defense information,” each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The charges in the Florida case include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalises the unauthorised possession of national defence information, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to investigators.
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