Aileen Cannon Dismisses Trump Classified Documents Case

Aileen Cannon

Judge Aileen Cannon just dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump, providing the former president a real shot in the arm heading into the Republican National Convention.

In dispensing with the case, Cannon ruled that the appointment of a special counsel violates the appointments clause of the Constitution, a position thoroughly and repeatedly rejected by federal courts. But a DISTRICT COURT JUDGE has decided that she can toss all controlling precedent based on Clarence Thomas occasionally writing separately to complain about how the rest of his colleagues expressly DO NOT hold this view.

Of all the outlier Thomas opinions to adopt, you’d have thought she’d choose the one where she got free vacations.

Cannon’s magnum opus presents a lazy tour through cherry-picked historical nuggets more befitting an episode of Drunk History than a court opinion. Is there a statute plainly authorizing the DOJ to hire outside attorneys to prosecute cases? Of course, but Cannon channels her inner DW and says, “That can’t stop me, because I can’t read!”

Put another way, nothing in this language shows Congress’s intent that “special assistants”—personnel authorized to “assist in the trial of any case in which the government is interested”—would function with the power of a United States Attorney.

Clearly the intent of the statute was to hire attorneys to assist in preparing coffee. The Eleventh Circuit will swiftly overrule this decision, likely blasting her for her incompetence again. Maybe they’ll finally take the case away from the unqualified political appointee in hopelessly over her head? Or maybe the DOJ could just ditch this indictment and start over with a DC grand jury?

However it goes down, Cannon has made a powerful case for this moving forward anywhere but her courtroom.

We’ll have more on this order later in the day. In the meantime, you can check it out on the next page.

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.