The appeal against a decision to dismiss a criminal case accusing Donald Trump of unlawfully retaining classified documents after his term as President was officially lodged by US prosecutors on Wednesday. The appeal was made to the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in Atlanta, with the aim of overturning the July 15th ruling by Aileen Cannon, a US district judge in Florida. The decision, made by Cannon who was appointed in 2020 by Trump himself, was that Jack Smith’s appointment by attorney general Merrick Garland in 2022 contravened the US constitution on the basis that Garland was not authorised by Congress to empower special counsels like Smith with such degree of authority and independence.
This development is the latest addition to Trump’s string of legal triumphs. On July 1st, the US Supreme Court decreed that Trump, during his tenure as President, is largely immune to legal proceedings concerning official actions, a decision which further complicated another case led by Smith against Trump’s endeavours to contest his 2020 election defeat. Trump is set to run as the Republican candidate against incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden in the United States’ November 5th elections, a rerun of the electoral contest from 2016.
The ruling by Cannon contradicts decades of precedent set by other federal courts which have consistently upheld the attorney general’s right to appoint special counsels to conduct investigations of a politically sensitive nature. This practice has been used by Presidential administrations of both Democratic and Republican affiliations over many decades. Notably, special counsels have as well investigated President Biden and his son, Hunter.
Cannon’s ruling led to the dismissal of charges against Trump and two additional accused, namely Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, manager of the former President’s Mar-a-Lago estate where the documents were uncovered during an FBI raid. The accusation was that Trump unlawfully held onto certain sensitive national security documents, including potentially compromising material on the US nuclear programme and military weaknesses, at his Mar-a-Lago resort after his term ended in January 2021. Additionally, Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira were charged with putting barriers in the investigation into Trump’s handling of these documents. All three pleaded not guilty.
Apart from the two prosecutions secured by Mr Smith, an array of criminal charges confronted Mr Trump in two other instances. In an unprecedented event, Mr Trump, the ex-US president, was pronounced guilty by a New York state court jury in May for felony offences involving silence money paid to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels to prevent a sex scandal ahead of the 2016 election. His sentencing is due in September. He also grapples with state-related charges in Georgia pinned to his endeavours to invalidate his 2020 loss.
The completion of the remaining two cases is not predicted before the elections.
As a public corruption and international war crime prosecutor, Mr Smith was selected to ensure the investigations into Mr Trump maintain a level of autonomy from the Justice Department during Mr Biden’s tenure. No objections have been raised by Mr Trump’s legal team regarding Mr Smith’s role in the election-related inquiry.
Out of the dozen active judges on the 11th circuit, half of them were appointed by Mr Trump. The 11th circuit had previously presented Mr Trump with a setback concerning classified documents. In 2022, prior to the indictments, an 11th circuit trio of judges overturned a decision by Ms Cannon to delegate a neutral “special master” to scrutinise evidence the FBI procured during a search of Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. – Reuters