Special Counsel To Appeal Dismissal Of Trump's Classified Documents Case

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith intends to appeal a judge’s dismissal of the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump.

A spokesman for Smith revealed the move in a statement Monday hours after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon threw out the case. The judge sided with Trump’s lawyers, who said Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution.

A successful appeal by prosecutors could result in the indictment being reinstated, though even if that there were to happen, it would be virtually impossible for a trial to take place before the November presidential election.

The decision by Judge Cannon, which may eventually be overturned by a higher court, brings at least for now a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted.

Though the case had long been stalled, and the prospect of a trial before the November election already nonexistent, the judge’s order is a significant legal and political victory for Trump as he recovers from a weekend assassination attempt and prepares to accept the Republican nomination in Milwaukee this week.

It’s the latest stroke of good fortune in the four criminal cases Trump has faced. He was convicted in May in his New York hush money trial, but the sentencing has been postponed after a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. That opinion will cause major delays in a separate case charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Another election subversion case filed in Atlanta has been delayed by revelations of a romantic