Lawfare Daily: Judge Cannon Dismisses Classified Documents Case Against Trump
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2024
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
On July 15, Judge Cannon granted former President Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith for the alleged mishandling of classified documents. She found that Smith was appointed as a special counsel in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.
In a live podcast recording, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes talked to Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett, Legal Fellow and Courts Correspondent Anna Bower, Senior Editors Alan Rozenshtein and Quinta Jurecic, and Columbia Law professor Michel Paradis about Judge Cannon's decision, what Special Counsel Jack Smith may do next, how the Eleventh Circuit may rule on an appeal, how Justice Thomas’s immunity concurrence plays a role, and more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:16.4 | slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.0 | So in Judge Cannon's view, if there is no vesting statute that clearly gives the attorney general the power to do this, |
| 0:42.0 | basically in her view that is a violation of the appointments |
| 0:46.5 | clause. It's the Law Fair Podcast. I'm Benjamin Wittis. Law Fair editor-in-Chief here with Natalie Orpet, Lawfair Executive Editor. |
| 0:56.6 | Anna Bauer, Lawfair Legal Fellow and Courts Correspondent Alan Rosenstein and Quinta Jurassic, |
| 1:03.8 | both Law Fair Senior Editors and Michelle Parady, |
| 1:08.9 | Columbia Law Professor and Defense Attorney at the military commissions. |
| 1:15.0 | Anytime you're talking about the government essentially pretending that it is not the one making decisions on behalf of the government. |
| 1:22.0 | Today we're talking about... decisions on behalf of the government. |
| 1:23.0 | Today we're talking about Judge Cannon's order |
| 1:26.0 | granting former President Trump's motion to dismiss |
| 1:30.0 | the classified documents indictment. The decision is based on the appointments |
| 1:36.1 | clause. We talked about what special counsel Jack Smith may do in response, what the 11th Circuit might do and how this issue would play at the |
| 1:47.0 | Supreme Court. |
| 1:49.2 | Natalie Orpit, get us started with as little rhetoric as humanly possible. What did Judge Cannon do today and on what basis? |
| 2:00.0 | Yes indeed. So Judge Cannon, as she made clear in a matter of first impression for the |
| 2:07.2 | circuit, went through the question of whether Special Counsel Jack Smith, it was constitutionally appointed such that he can bring the indictment |
| 2:16.8 | against former President Trump. She dismissed the case on the finding that he is not in fact constitutionally appointed. So I'll just run through the opinion, which as been mentioned is quite quite long. So she does a background of the case and the procedure. The appointment is divided into two constitutional arguments. The first is the appointments clause, the second is the appropriations clause as I will mention the latter gets much less |
| 2:46.7 | treatment than the former. So she goes through the principles around the appointments |
... |
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