In a surprising ruling on Monday, the federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump dismissed the charges.
This decision drops one of the two cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith, who is also handling the election interference case against Trump.
Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel in the documents case was unconstitutional.
“The Superseding Indictment is DISMISSED because Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution,” she wrote.
Cannon stated that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional because it “effectively usurps” Congress’s authority.
Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House. Prosecutors claimed he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to obstruct the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel in November 2022. Last month, Cannon heard arguments from Trump’s attorneys seeking to dismiss the case on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed.
“The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers,” Cannon wrote in her lengthy order. “That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not.”
“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme — the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Cannon added.
Multiple sources told ABC News that Trump and his camp see the dismissal as an act of “divine intervention,” saying Trump is thrilled.
Sources said those around Trump “hope and expect the same logic will apply to the D.C. case.”
“President Trump is relieved and happy that he can move on,” the sources said.
Trump, writing on his social media platform two days after surviving an assassination attempt, called for the dismissal of all remaining cases against him, saying, “As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal … should be just the first step.”
In addition to the Jan. 6 case, Trump faces charges in the Georgia election interference case and was found guilty in May in New York of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to boost his 2016 presidential election prospects. He has pleaded not guilty in all cases and plans to appeal the hush money verdict.
Judge Cannon noted that her ruling does not apply to other jurisdictions, meaning it may not affect the special counsel’s Jan. 6 election interference case against Trump.
Smith did not respond to an in-person question about the ruling from an ABC News reporter. A spokesperson for the special counsel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order can be appealed, and other district judges and the D.C. Circuit Court have upheld the constitutionality of special counsels in previous legal challenges.
If overturned on appeal, the order could lead to Smith requesting Cannon’s removal from the case due to her pattern of unusually favorable rulings for Trump, which have drawn criticism from legal experts across the political spectrum.