Judge hands Trump major legal victory, dismissing classified documents charges; Judge Aileen Cannon says special counsel doesn't have authority to prosecute the case

There’s been this slide regarding normal, functional rules and laws. This just feels like a fuck it, I’m a judge, I’ll call the prosecutor illegally appointed and go have breakfast. What can they do?

More of a what I want than what is ethical. Kind of the tonal backslide we’ve been in since 2016.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, was unlawfully appointed to his role and did not have the authority to bring the case.

It marked another blockbuster legal victory for Trump, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on July 1 that as a former president he enjoyed immunity from prosecution for many of his actions in office.

Smith is also prosecuting Trump in federal court in Washington over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, but the former president's lawyers have not made a similar challenge to the special counsel in that case.

The 37-count indictment included violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defence information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Lawyers in Smith's office disputed Trump's claims, arguing there was a well-settled practice of using special counsels to manage politically sensitive investigations.

Garland appointed Smith, a public corruption and international war crimes prosecutor, to give investigations into Trump a degree of independence from the Justice Department under Joe Biden's administration.

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