In a major setback for President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, the federal judge overseeing the criminal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith against former President Donald Trump for willful and unlawful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act and for obstruction of justice threw out the superseding indictment and dismissed all of the 42 charges against Trump and two other defendants.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump’s motion to dismiss the case, concluding that Smith’s appointment as a special counsel violated the Appointments Clause, and that the funds his office has spent to pursue Trump violated the Appropriations Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the expenditure of federal monies without an express appropriation by Congress.
The Justice Department now must decide whether to appeal the…
