Judge Dismisses Trump Classified Documents Case

TIME

A federal judge has dismissed the case against former President Donald Trump for allegedly hoarding classified documents, arguing the prosecutor who brought the case was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

Transcript

00:00Trump had faced dozens of felony counts in federal court in Florida accusing him of

00:05illegally hoarding classified and top secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

00:12There were records that were recovered all over the property in the bathroom,

00:16for instance, and really in all sorts of places that the federal government said

00:20were not supposed to be proper repositories for really sensitive records.

00:24Trump has pleaded not guilty. He's maintained his innocence. And it is one of four criminal

00:29cases that Trump has faced. This was the year that began with a lot of sense that there might

00:34be significant legal consequences for the former president, but that's not really how it's turned

00:38out. He's been convicted in just one of the four cases, a New York hush money prosecution,

00:44but the sentencing there has been delayed by virtue of a Supreme Court opinion that

00:48conferred broad immunity on former presidents. Another case in Atlanta charging with plotting

00:54to subvert the 2020 election has really been on hold amid a review into the conduct of the

01:00prosecutor. And then the future of the other federal case brought by Jack Smith is also in doubt

01:07in lieu of a Supreme Court opinion. It's going to really require a lot of work at the trial

01:11court level and is almost certainly going to prevent a trial from taking place before the

01:15November presidential election. Trump is already out with a statement saying that this is the

01:21first step in what should happen in all four of his cases. He says all four are hoaxes and should

01:26be dismissed. But I do think it's worth noting that the dismissal here is not a reflection of

01:31the judge's assessment of Trump's guilt or innocence. This is a very legal and technical,

01:38even arcane argument from the defense team that said that the special counsel who brought the

01:43case, Jack Smith, that his appointment was illegal because he was selected by the just department,

01:48but didn't go through Senate confirmation. The just department, of course, says that process

01:53is not necessary and it's never been required under their own regulations and other judges

01:58have never required it. This is, of course, an order that can be appealed. And so there's every

02:03reason to expect the special counsel, Jack Smith, will do that really immediately, will file a notice

02:09to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to say that they are challenging this order and that they want

02:15the case to be reinstated. It's worth noting that that's actually already happened in the

02:21classified documents investigation before, where Judge Cannon had appointed an independent arbiter

02:27to review the classified documents that were taken from Mar-a-Lago, and then a federal appeals court

02:33actually then rejected that order, rejected that appointment, and benefited the just,

02:42enrolling the benefit of the just department. So there's every reason to think that the just

02:46department is, of course, going to upheal this order.

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