Trump Dodges Another Bullet As Cannon Kills Documents Case

Donald Trump dodged a bullet.

[Looks around at the audience. Waits. Crickets. Waits. Still crickets.] Tough crowd.

Less than 48 hours after escaping an assassination attempt with a flesh wound, Trump scored a major legal victory when controversial judge Aileen Cannon (a Trump appointee) threw out the classified documents case against the former president.

Throughout the case, Judge Cannon’s jurisprudence was a source of extreme consternation for some legal commentators who harbor serious reservations about her — how should I put this? — out-of-the-box thinking vis-à-vis Team Trump’s at times outlandish defense theories.

If Judge Cannon’s controversy knob was already on 10, she dialed it up to about a 15 on Monday, when she killed the documents case with a bullet to the head.

[Looks around at the audience. Waits. Crickets. Waits. Still crickets.] Tough crowd.

In addition to validating the worst fears of critics who questioned her impartiality, Cannon’s ruling looked suspiciously like an effort to turn Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in the Trump immunity case into precedent.

Long story short, Cannon ruled that the appointment of special counsels is unconstitutional, undoing three decades of standard operating procedure.

“Is there a statute… that authorizes the appointment of [the Special Counsel] to conduct this prosecution,” Cannon asked, of Jack Smith, before answering:

The answer is no. The bottom line is this: The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers and gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers. The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers.

And just like that, the credibility and legitimacy of all independent prosecutors and their findings is in doubt. That would include, I assume, Robert Mueller.

I’m hardly the final word on legal matters, but if Cannon’s logic stands and I were an attorney for anyone indicted in the Mueller probe, I’d seek some manner of relief or restitution. Because apparently, Mueller’s appointment was illegitimate in the first place.

If you’re starting to suspect there’s a conspiracy afoot among Trump-friendly judges in America all the way up to the highest court in the land, you’re — and I’m searching for a polite phrase — probably not crazy.

While celebrating the ruling on Truth Social, Trump suggested all cases against him should be tossed. You know, in the interest of “uniting the country.”

“As we move forward in uniting our nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the lawless indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of all the witch hunts,” Trump declared.

He mentioned proceedings related to January 6, the cases in Manhattan and even the state case in Georgia. Channeling his first impeachment defense, Trump described his phone call with Georgia election officials — the call where he instructed the state to “find” votes on a recorded line — as a “perfect” call.

“The Democrat Justice Department coordinated all of these political attacks,” he went on, accusing Joe Biden, by name, of engaging in a “conspiracy” to interfere with the 2024 election.

That’s the thing about conspirators: They tend to mask their own machinations by way of incessant allegations leveled against everyone else. It’s a projection, but it’s also a smoke screen.

At this point, I assume (I hope, I really, really hope) that even the Trump supporters among you are beginning to understand the inherent peril. Love him, loathe him or something in-between, the inescapable reality is that Trump’s very nearly succeeded in putting himself above the law. In the process, he’s cast considerable doubt about the future of the rule of law in America.

Do we really want that? Forget whether you want it for Trump, as some readers surely do. What about your kids? And your grandchildren? Do you really want them to live in a system where the rule of law isn’t universally applicable and where justice isn’t even-handed?

Trump’s famously self-absorbed. Everything he’s doing is first and foremost in the service of perpetuating his own quest for power and shielding himself from consequences. He isn’t taking into consideration the ramifications of his actions for future generations of American citizens who’ll have to live with the system he’s (re)shaping.

Presumably, Jack Smith will try to appeal, and he may try to have Cannon booted from the case. For now, though, she’s handed Trump an enormous legal victory, and the timing’s fortuitous: Cannon killed the case on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

A conspiracy theorist would say there are no coincidences. But I don’t go in much for conspiracies.