Judge hands Trump major legal victory, dismissing classified documents charges

A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally holding onto classified documents, dealing the former president another major legal victory in what some analysts believed was the most challenging case he was facing among his four criminal indictments.

Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, was unlawfully appointed to his role and did not have the authority to bring the case.

It marked another blockbuster legal victory for Trump, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on July 1 that as a former president he enjoyed immunity from prosecution for many of his actions in office.

Prosecutors are likely to appeal the ruling, or potentially refile the charges in D.C., where the original request for documents emanated from. Courts in other cases have repeatedly upheld the ability of the U.S. Justice Department to appoint special counsels to handle certain politically sensitive investigations.

But Cannon's ruling throws the future of the case, which once posed serious legal peril for Trump, into doubt. Smith is also prosecuting Trump in federal court in Washington over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, but the former president's lawyers have not made a similar challenge to the special counsel in that case.

The classified documents investigation was first referred to prosecutors in 2022 after the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration tried for more than a year to retrieve presidential records from Trump.

Trump has been accused of taking thousands of papers containing some of the nation's most sensitive national security secrets when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate. Reportedly, another document may have been in Trump's possession at a New Jersey property he owned.

The 37-count indictment included violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defence information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The charges included references to dozens of top secret or secret documents.

WATCH l Reaction, investigation and possible political consequences after rally shooting:

Trump's lawyers challenged the legal authority for Attorney General Merrick Garland's 2022 decision to appoint Smith to lead investigations into Trump. They argued the appointment violated the U.S. Constitution because his office was not created by Congress and he was not confirmed by the Senate.

Lawyers in Smith's office disputed Trump's claims, arguing there was a well-settled practice of using special counsels to manage politically sensitive investigations.

The ruling is the latest and most consequential in a series of decisions from Cannon favouring Trump's defence and expressing skepticism about the conduct of prosecutors. The judge previously delayed a trial indefinitely while considering a flurry of Trump's legal challenges.

In an unusual move, she allowed three outside lawyers, including two who sided with Trump, to argue during a court hearing focused on Trump's challenge to Smith's appointment.

Read the July 1 Supreme Court opinion on immunity of presidents: