Trump Documents Case Dropped After Immunity Ruling

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s worst fears just came true.

Smith was in panic mode after the presidential immunity ruling, where Justice Clarence Thomas called into question the legality of his appointment.

Leaning into that opinion, Judge Aileen Cannon has thrown out the classified documents case against Donald Trump.

Illegal Appointment

In his opinion, Thomas called on the lower courts to decide if Smith’s appointment was legal.

To be honest, I thought this issue had been settled, as numerous previous special counsel appointments were made that leaned into the same guidelines used to appoint Smith.

Apparently, I was wrong.

Cannon sided with Justice Thomas here, ruling, “In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny.

“Perhaps this can be traced back to reliance on stray dictum in Nixon that perpetuated in subsequent cases. Perhaps it can be justified practically by the urgency of national crises. Or perhaps it can be explained by the relative infrequency of these types of investigations, by congressional inattention, or by the important roles that special-counsel-like figures have played in our country’s history.

“Regardless of the explanation, the present Motion requires careful analysis of the statutory landscape to ensure compliance with the Constitution, and the Court has endeavored to do so with care.

“The Court thus returns to where it started. The Appointments Clause is ‘among the significant structural safeguards of the constitutional scheme.’ Edmond, 520 U.S. at 659. So too is the Appropriations Clause, which carefully separates Congressional control of the ‘purse’ from Executive control of the ‘sword.’ The Federalist No. 78 (Alexander Hamilton).

“The consequences of relaxing either of those critical provisions are serious, both in this case and beyond. As Justice Frankfurter explained in his opinion in Youngstown, ‘[t]he accretion of dangerous power does not come in a day. It does come, however slowly, from the generative force of unchecked disregard of the restrictions that fence in even the most disinterested assertion of authority.’ Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 594 (1952) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). ‘[I]llegitimate and unconstitutional practices get their first footing . . . by silent approaches and slight deviations from legal modes of procedure.’ Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 635 (1886).”

The DOJ will file an appeal, and I fully expect the Circuit Court to hear the appeal, so this case is far from over just yet.

If, however, this ruling holds up, one of the two cases with the most teeth, arguably the toughest case against Trump, will have been dismissed, and the Teflon Don will live to fight another day.

Get those safe spaces ready, my friends, because Democrats and liberals are going to need them!