Why was the Trump classified documents case dismissed?

Two days after being the target of a failed assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania, the classified documents case against former US president Donald Trump has been dismissed by judge Aileen Cannon because of Merrick Garland’s appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel.

Why has Smith’s appointment as special counsel been deemed illegal?

Smith, an independent lawyer, had been appointed to lead the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents and his role in the attack on Congress on January 6, 2021.

Last year, Smith had charged the 78-year-old with taking classified documents from the White House and not cooperating with the government’s attempts to retrieve them. The documents in question were retrieved during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

On Monday, however, Cannon ruled that the Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution. “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,” she stated.

This means that, according to multiple legal experts, the strongest of the four cases pending against Trump has now been cleared.

Which criminal cases remain against former president Trump?

There are three remaining criminal cases against the former US president. Firstly, he is accused of using the Capitol riot in January 2021 to try to delay Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election and stay in power.

In May, Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of fraud in the famous “hush money” trial involving adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, which was connected to falsifying business records. His lawyers have requested the conviction be overturned.

And he has also been accused, along with 18 other defendants, of criminally conspiring to overturn his defeat in the state of Georgia in the 2020 election.

Assassination attempt on Donald Trump

It has been quite a week for Trump, who was the target of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks killed one man, critically injured two others and, quite incredibly, grazed the ear of the former president as he was speaking.

After being treated at a local medical center, confirmation soon came through that Trump was “fine” and that he would be attending the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as planned.