Donald Trump has just received some very welcome news: Aileen Cannon, the federal judge overseeing the indictment alleging that Trump took classified documents when he left office, has just thrown out the case.
Cannon, a federal judge appointed by Trump, ruled that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Appointment Clause of the Constitution because he was not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate. Her decision goes against the post-Watergate precedent that upheld the legality of independent prosecutors.
The idea that Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, was unconstitutionally appointed was initially raised in the recent Supreme Court decision giving the president substantial immunity from criminal prosecution. Justice Clarence Thomas encouraged “lower courts” to look into the “essential questions concerning the special counsel’s appointment.”
What does the constitution say: The Appointment Clause says that the president and the Senate have the power to appoint “Officers of the United States” but that Congress may allow “inferior officers” to be appointed by “the heads of departments,” like the Attorney General.
So the discrepancy is whether the special council is considered an inferior officer and whether, as Thomas wrote, his appointment was valid “unless a statute created the special counsel’s office and gave the Attorney General the power to fill it.”
Smith will inevitably appeal, but the decision means that Trump has overcome another major legal threat – and this one on the first day of the Republican National Convention, where he is set to formally become the party’s nominee for president.
Sovereignty has become one of the most powerful, and least defined, words in tech policy. At the 2026 Munich Security Conference, SAP global head of government affairs, Wolfgang Dierker, explains why governments and enterprise customers are demanding more control over their data, cloud infrastructure, and AI systems amid rising geopolitical uncertainty.
Tune in today at 12pm ET/6pm CET for the live premiere of our Global Stage from the 2026 Munich Security Conference, where our panel of experts takes aim at the latest global security challenges. NY Times National Security Correspondent David Sanger moderates the discussion with Benedetta Berti, Secretary General, NATO Parliamentary Assembly; Ian Bremmer, President & Co-founder, Eurasia Group & GZERO Media; Dr. Wolfgang Dierker, Global Head of Government Affairs, SAP; and Brad Smith, Vice Chair & President, Microsoft.
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