Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of the classified documents case against former

President Trump is his second major legal victory in weeks.

In a 93-page ruling, Cannon said the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith who's

overseeing the case was unlawful. A spokesperson for the Department of

Justice says it will appeal the ruling and joining us now is Mary McCord. She was acting head of the Justice Department's

National Security Division

and a long-time US attorney.

Mary, thanks so much for being with us.

And Mary, we should point out here

that this was not dismissed on the merits of the case,

but rather as we pointed out, it was about the way in which Special Counsel Jacksmith was appointed by Attorney

General Merrick Garland.

Other federal courts have upheld the constitutionality of special counsel.

So based on your understanding, how out of step is the judge here with what you know legal precedent to be?

Well, she's quite out of step with the legal precedent and I would say all of the cases

all of the courts who have upheld the appointment of the special counsel in the past

they've relied on a Supreme Court case called US versus Nixon which accepted for

purposes of that case that the attorney general had the authority to appoint special prosecutors with special responsibilities and actually pointed to the same statutes that the attorney general in this case relied on him in appointing Jack Smith.

But you know who she's not out of step with is

Justice Thomas who in his concurring opinion in the immunity decision spent several

pages in fact the entire point of his concurring opinion was to call attention to the fact that he thought it needed to be examined with the appointment of Jack Smith violated the appointments clause and that's not an issue that was before the court in the

immunity case it hadn't been briefed it hadn't been argued nevertheless he set out real

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