The Daily Fuckup

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Donald Trump’s federal classified-documents case on July 15, 2024, throwing out the indictment in district court on the ground that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed. The decision stopped the prosecution at the trial-court level, but it was immediately subject to appeal. The Justice Department said it would challenge the ruling.

Cannon did not decide whether Trump was guilty or innocent of mishandling classified material. Her order did not reach a jury, and it did not resolve the evidence tied to documents kept at Mar-a-Lago or the government’s efforts to recover them. Instead, she accepted a threshold challenge to Smith’s appointment and used that ruling to end the case in her court before trial.

That left the prosecution in a procedural holding pattern, not a final graveyard. The government can seek reversal in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the appointment issue can be tested again. Until then, the case is off the district-court trial calendar.

The ruling gave Trump a major short-term break in one of the most serious criminal cases he faced. But it also invited a new round of litigation over the scope of special-counsel power, with the appellate court now likely to decide whether the case stays dismissed or returns to the trial judge.