AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A federal judge in Florida today dismissed all charges against former President Trump over his handling of classified documents. The decision by Judge Aileen Cannon delivers Trump a significant victory on the first day of the Republican National Convention. And here to explore the legal issues in the ruling and its implications is NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Hi, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so this was a bit of a surprise this morning to see the whole Mar-a-Lago case against Trump thrown out. What reasons did the judge give?
JOHNSON: Judge Cannon says the special counsel in this case was appointed unconstitutionally and that he lacked the power to bring this prosecution. The attorney general appointed Jack Smith back in 2022, but Judge Cannon says only Congress or the president should have that authority. Judge Cannon mentioned a recent writing by conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a separate case against Trump. There, Justice Thomas basically invited Trump and the lower courts to take up this issue of the power of the special counsel, which kind of paved the way for this opinion today.
CHANG: Just so I understand, this means all the charges against Trump over his alleged hoarding of classified documents - all of the charges just go away?
JOHNSON: The practical effect of the judge's ruling is to throw out the whole case, not just against Donald Trump but also his codefendants, his aides at the Mar-a-Lago Resort. The Justice Department has the power to appeal, and there's good reason to think it will. Judge Cannon has been reversed by a conservative appeals court in this case in the past, and many other federal courts that have considered this issue - under the appointments clause of the Constitution - have all sided with the Justice Department. Law professors are pointing out there's a long historical precedent where attorneys general name what they call inferior officers, such as the special counsel.
CHANG: Well, I imagine Trump and his team are beyond elated right now. What are they saying so far?
JOHNSON: Yeah. Donald Trump cheered the move and called for the dismissal of the other three criminal cases against him. I reached out this afternoon to Jesse Panuccio. He's a former Justice Department official in the Trump administration. Panuccio says the judge wrote a serious opinion, and she was right to question the special counsel's authority.
JESSE PANUCCIO: Mr. Smith is a private citizen who has not been vetted by the United States Senate, not been appointed by the president, exercising the full power of a United States attorney, which is vast, which is the power to prosecute and imprison people, in this case, a former president.
CHANG: What do you think going down the road are the implications if other courts follow this reasoning from Judge Cannon?
JOHNSON: There are big implications. It could mean that both federal cases against Donald Trump, the Florida case and the one in Washington over January 6, are over. But it also has implications for the way the Justice Department has investigated sensitive allegations against political figures since the Nixon era. Lawyer Matthew Seligman told me what's at stake is every prosecution brought by a special counsel.
MATTHEW SELIGMAN: The Department of Justice as an institution has an overwhelming interest in defending the constitutionality and lawfulness of special counsels in general, not just because of the January 6 case, because there have been dozens of these special counsels and special prosecutors over the last decades.
JOHNSON: Think about Archibald Cox, who investigated Nixon...
CHANG: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...Or Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden.
CHANG: Exactly. Well, the thing is, Carrie, the Florida prosecution of Trump has been considered, like, the strongest of the four cases against the former president. Was that thinking just, I don't know, like, off the mark?
JOHNSON: The bulk of the case in Florida relates to behavior by Donald Trump after he left the White House, allegedly taking secret documents to his Florida resort, storing them in bathrooms and ballrooms and then refusing to hand over those papers when the Justice Department asked and even after the FBI searched the property. Former prosecutors told me that was as close to an open-and-shut case as the DOJ might ever get. But now, at best, there's going to be a lot more delay. And if Donald Trump regains the White House, he could direct his attorney general to drop any appeal and bury this case for good.
CHANG: Wow. That is NPR's Carrie Johnson. Thank you so much, Carrie.
JOHNSON: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF JONUFF'S "CROW") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
