What happened
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday dismissed the entirety of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Donald Trump. In her 93-page ruling, Cannon, a Trump appointee, argued that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
Who said what
Cannon’s decision is a “surprise twist after a year of court proceedings that have been unpredictable — and slow-moving — from the start,” The Wall Street Journal said. The Florida judge had previously given Trump “considerable room to make legal arguments challenging the validity of the charges, prompting repeated frustration from prosecutors and criticism from legal experts.”
The ruling is a “triumph for Trump, even if it is eventually reversed on appeal,” said The Washington Post. “Other courts have rejected arguments similar to the one that Trump’s team made in Florida about the legality of Smith’s appointment.”
This decision “rolls back nearly 30 years of how special counsels have gotten their jobs,” The New York Times said. Despite Cannon’s abundant leniency toward the Trump team, it’s “fair to say that almost no one expected her to kill the documents case in quite this way at quite this moment.”
Trump is now “unlikely to face another trial before Election Day,” Axios said, after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that “presidents have immunity for ‘official acts.'”
What next?
Smith is almost certain to appeal Cannon’s ruling. The case may “eventually reach the Supreme Court,” The Washington Post said.