A Florida judge dismissed the case against former President Trump for the handling of classified documents, and some legal experts are calling it a “strongly reasoned” opinion that eliminates the “greatest legal threat” to the presumptive 2024 GOP just ahead of the Republican National Convention. 

On Monday, Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a 93-page opinion dismissing the case on the grounds that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith to oversee the case was unconstitutional. 

“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 wrote. 

Jonathan Turley, a defense attorney and law professor at George Washington University, told Fox News Monday that “of all of the cases that could be dismissed, this would be at the top of the list. This was the greatest threat. And for now, at least, it’s gone.”

SPECIAL COUNSEL IN TRUMP CASE UNCONSTITUTIONAL, FORMER REAGAN AG SAYS

Trump had faced charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his possession of classified materials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements

John Malcolm, a former federal prosecutor and director of the Ed Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said that the case brought by Smith was the “most serious of the four criminal cases that were filed against him.” 

A representative for Smith did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment and whether the Justice Department plans to appeal the decision. 

JUDGE DISMISSES TRUMP’S FLORIDA CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE

Former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was searched by the FBI in 2022. (Getty Images)

John Yoo, a constitutional attorney, told Fox News Digital that the question of the constitutionality of special counsel has been debated for over 20 years. “We’ve been thinking and talking about this, these people who specialize in the Appointments Clause. The courts have generally been deferential to the Justice Department and how they want to appoint different lawyers.” 

“But I think because of how aggressive Jack Smith has been, he prompted close scrutiny from the courts,” said Yoo. 

Ed Meese, the former Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan, filed a number of amicus briefs in Jack Smith’s cases against Trump arguing that Smith is “improperly appointed” and  “has no more authority to represent the United States in this Court than Bryce Harper, Taylor Swift, or Jeff Bezos.” 

While Garland cited as statutory authority for this appointment, Meese argued that “none of those statutes, nor any other statutory or constitutional provisions, remotely authorized the appointment by the Attorney General of a private citizen to receive extraordinary criminal law enforcement power under the title of Special Counsel.”

“Second, even if one overlooks the absence of statutory authority for the position, there is no statute specifically authorizing the Attorney General, rather than the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint such a Special Counsel,” the former AG wrote. 

U.S. President Donald Trump awards the National Medal of Freedom to former Attorney General Edwin Meese during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House October 08, 2019 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Meese said “We are very glad that the court moved to emphasize the importance of the Constitution in making sure that the special counsel’s appointment constitutional standards.”

“I congratulate Judge Cannon for her courage and constitutional ability,” he said. 

Yoo said Cannon’s decision is “a very thorough, strongly reasoned, persuasive opinion [that] goes through the history of special counsels and all the statutes that are involved.”

“This decision is very well-reasoned and very well-written,” said John Shu, a constitutional attorney who served in both Bush administrations. “It’s not surprising because Congress intentionally allowed the independent counsel statute, which the Supreme Court found constitutional, to lapse, and they never replaced or amended it.”
 
“And thus Congress, through it’s inaction, just allowed the regulatory agency, in this case the DOJ, to go ahead and promulgate its own regulations in place of an actual enabling statute,” he explained.

LUNA’S BID TO FORCE GARLAND TO HAND OVER BIDEN-HUR TAPES FAILS IN HOUSE

Former President Donald Trump holds a rally in the historically Democratic South Bronx on May 23, 2024 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

 Monday’s decision is the latest in a string of legal victories for the former president. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that he and future presidents are granted limited immunity from prosecution for official acts in office. That decision directly impacted Smith’s separate case against Trump related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. 

In a separate concurrence to the immunity decision, Justice Clarence Thomas looked to “highlight another way in which this prosecution may violate our constitutional structure” – the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel. 

“In this case, there has been much discussion about ensuring that a President ‘is not above the law.’ But, as the Court explains, the President’s immunity from prosecution for his official acts is the law. The Constitution provides for ‘an energetic executive,’ because such an Executive is ‘essential to… the security of liberty,’” Thomas wrote. 

“Respecting the protections that the Constitution provides for the Office of the Presidency secures liberty. In that same vein, the Constitution also secures liberty by separating the powers to create and fill offices. And, there are serious questions whether the Attorney General has violated that structure by creating an office of the Special Counsel that has not been established by law,” Thomas said, adding that “[t]hose questions must be answered before this prosecution can proceed.”

Thomas explained that in this case, the attorney general “purported to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel to prosecute a former President on behalf of the United States.” 

“But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been ‘established by Law,’ as the Constitution requires. By requiring that Congress create federal offices ‘by Law,’ the Constitution imposes an important check against the President – he cannot create offices at his pleasure,” he said. 

Should the Justice Department appeal Cannon’s decision, the Supreme Court could eventually be petitioned to weigh in on the matter. 

“All of these cases seem to be collapsing of their own weight, and it’s because of lawfare,” said Jim Trusty, a former federal prosector and former lawyer for President Trump. 

“This is the price of lawfare when you create different crimes and different investigative approaches, and you do it all in the name of self-righteousness that Donald Trump needs to be stopped, which is really the philosophy behind all these prosecutions.”  

• A pickup truck collided with a horse-drawn buggy in the Farmville area of Cumberland County, Virginia, about 50 miles west of Richmond.
• One person was killed and six others were injured in the crash.
• The driver of the pickup was not injured, and the crash is under investigation.

One person was killed and six others injured when a pickup truck collided with the horse-drawn buggy they were traveling in, Virginia State Police said.

The crash happened just before 7 p.m. Sunday in the 2700 block of Cumberland Road in the Farmville area of Cumberland County, police said in a news release. The area is about 50 miles west of Richmond.

‘MIRACLE’ DOG FOUND ALIVE IN UNDERGROUND VIRGINIA CAVE

Seven people were on board the buggy at the time of the crash. One died on the scene and the other six were taken to a hospital with injuries that ranged from serious to life-threatening, police said. The driver of the pickup was not injured.

The crash was under investigation, police said.

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley joined “America’s Newsroom” Monday after a judge in Florida dismissed the case against former President Trump’s handling of classified documents.

TRUMP VIP RALLY ATTENDEE SHARES WHAT HE EXPERIENCED DURING THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

JONATHAN TURLEY: This is a seismic decision because the immunity decision that was issued by the Supreme Court was the second of a 1-2 punch for Jack Smith. Previously, the court had reversed an obstruction charge that impacted Trump as well. And so those two cases here ripped the wings off his case. So we were all looking to see how Jack Smith would handle it in D.C. He had a very motivated and favorable judge, Judge Chutkan. And she has really been an ideal choice for Jack Smith. So the assumption was that Judge Chutkan would do her level best to keep that case going even after these hits. Few people expected the Florida case to be the one that disassembled first. Well, what Judge Cannon is saying here is essentially, look, there’s this weird anomaly in the Constitution, we have a process of which U.S. attorneys are nominated, and they are then confirmed by the Senate. And yet the attorney general can just go on to any street in D.C. and pick any person and make them a special counsel with greater authority than the U.S. attorney. And that’s what she’s trying to get at here, saying, where is the footprint for this in the Constitution? Where is the authority to create Jack Smith within the first three articles of the Constitution? So it’s a huge win for Trump. Other courts have really dismissed this claim with very little briefing. And so this will create a conflict. There are good arguments on both sides here. But, you couldn’t have more favorable news for Donald Trump because I’ve said it from the beginning, the Florida case was by far the greatest threat to Donald Trump. The New York case, the Manhattan case, in my view, has layers of reversible error. It’s going to be in the courts for a while I think. Judge Merchan did a particularly poor job in that case, and I don’t even see the viable crime in that case. But putting that aside, Florida was the greatest challenge.

Trump had faced charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his possession of classified materials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

“Former President Trump’s Motion to Dismiss Indictment Based on the Unlawful Appointment and Funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith is GRANTED in accordance with this Order,” U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in a Monday ruling. “The Superseding Indictment is DISMISSED because Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report