BREAKUPBREAKUP,
Trump is charged with 31 counts of willfully withholding information relating to the national defense, each of which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
A Florida judge appointed by Donald Trump has dismissed the criminal case against the former president accused of mishandling of top secret documentsclaiming that the manner in which special prosecutor Jack Smith was appointed was improper.
United States District Judge Aileen Cannon The court on Monday granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the case, tossing out a lawsuit that, at the time it was filed, was considered the most perilous of the many legal threats facing Trump.
“Former President Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment based on the illegal appointment and funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith is GRANTED,” Cannon wrote in his order.
“The Superseding Indictment is DISMISSED because the appointment of Special Prosecutor Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”
Judge Cannon issued her ruling after lawyers for Trump, 78, requested a partial stay of proceedings to allow for an assessment of a Supreme Court ruling that a former president enjoys broad immunity from prosecution.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that special counsel Jack Smith was appointed illegally, in violation of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, and that his office was improperly funded by the Justice Department.
The ruling is a huge victory for Trump, who had been accused of endangering national security by retaining top-secret documents after leaving the White House.
Arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National ConventionTrump welcomed the decision and said all legal proceedings against him should be dropped. The former US president is expected to be crowned his party’s champion at the convention, after surviving a assassination attempted rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
In the Florida case, he faced 31 counts of “willfully withholding information relating to the national defense,” each of which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
The charges against Florida Case These include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes the unauthorized possession of national defense information, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to investigators.
