U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon recently handed a victory to Donald Trump after his attorneys successfully argued that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who filed the classified documents charges, was illegally appointed.
"The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not," Judge Cannon wrote in a 93-page order.
J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department attorney who now serves as president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, says, "It's really good news for Donald Trump," who faced dozens of felonies for allegedly hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.
"He's, first of all, lucky that he's alive," Adams responds. "Secondly, the court has effectively put off the federal prosecutions until after the election. They'll work their way through an appeals process; that's going to slow things down, and it pretty much means there won't be any federal action prior to the election."
Abraham Hamilton III, general counsel and public policy analyst for the American Family Association (AFA), adds that the office of special counsel is clearly supposed to be congressionally established.
"Judge Cannon's opinion is a very well written opinion, very scholarly in explaining why the appointment of Jack Smith violated the Constitution's Appointments Clause," Hamilton comments. "Special counsel appointments require advice and consent from the Senate, and seeing Judge Cannon seize on that in dismissing the documents case of former President Trump in Florida -- it's something that if you were legally paying attention, you could see coming."
Still, he calls it "quite the turn of events."
The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of Trump's presidential immunity, at least delaying his sentencing in the New York hush money conviction against him. Meanwhile, the former president maintains that he is innocent.
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
