The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents scandal dismissed the case on Monday, borrowing from an unorthodox recent opinion of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said that Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith was improperly appointed as the lead prosecutor on the investigation, countering the widely held opinion by legal scholars that the role was constitutional.
“Is there a statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution? After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no,” Cannon wrote in her order on Monday.