The Surprise Ending to the Mar-a-Lago Documents Case

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. tavernes and this is the. [Music]. daily as the Republican National. Convention entered its second day Donald. Trump and his allies absorbed the. stunning new reality that the most. formidable legal case against him had. been thrown out by a federal judge today. my colleague Alan foyer on what it means.

that the classified documents case may. now be. [Music]. dead it's Wednesday July. [Music]. 17th so Alan it's been a pretty. Relentless week of News about Donald. Trump an assassination attempt him. announcing his vice presidential pick at.

the start of the Republican National. Convention in Milwaukee on Monday night. and amidst all of that we got the news. that really in any other week would have. been the only thing anyone was talking. about and that is what appears to be a. major legal victory for Trump the judge. in the classified documents case. throughout the case remind us about this. case sure this is the case against Trump.

in which he stands accused of taking a. trove of Highly classified documents. from the White House after he's left. office down to his new post-presidential. home in maralago his Club in. [Music]. Florida and not only has he been accused. of taking this stuff these State secrets. that really no longer belong to him. because he's no longer president he then. has been charged with willfully.

obstructing the government's repeated. efforts over the course of months to get. these documents back right and the one. investigative step in this case that. everyone will surely remember is when. the FBI executed a search warrant at. Mara Lago two summers ago and they. hauled away 45 boxes of stuff and found. more than 100 classified documents in. those boxes right the boxes stock in the.

bathroom the classified documents all. over the house in marago and if I. remember correctly this was the most. straightforward of all of the Trump. cases right this was the one that was. the most clearcut against him yeah the. charges were relatively simple and you. know the evidence against him was very. strong evidence for the. government nonetheless Trump's lawyers. filed a barrage of motions attacking the. validity of the charges and these.

motions fell to the judge who was. handling the case her name is eileene. Cannon and as you may recall she herself. was appointed by Trump in his final year. in office and she was assigned to this. case really when she only had about. three years of experience on the bench. and had extremely limited experience in. handling criminal trials in particular. right and so you know she had to sort of.

deal with this flurry of motions that. Trump's lawyers filed and she gave a. quite serious hearing to all of them and. in the end lo and behold one of those. motions to dismiss the case finally. worked so what sticks what argument. actually succeeded it had to do with the. way in which Jack smth the special.

counsel who filed the indictment against. Trump got his job how he was appointed. to his post and what judge Canon. ultimately ruled was that Jack Smith the. way in which he was appointed as special. counsel violated the Constitution okay. so let's unpack that a little bit how. are special councils typically appointed. I mean how does it actually work so a. special counsel is simply a prosecutor. with some level of independence from the.

justice department who is brought in to. handle very sensitive political. investigations they've had different. names over time and they've also been. appointed differently at different. points in our history so for example in. the wake of Watergate Congress passed a. law called The Independent Council act. and that gave prosecutors special. prosecutors a great deal.

of leeway and latitude and freedom for. how they wanted to conduct their. investigations because we just had this. massive political Scandal and the. thought was we need to give prosecutors. who are looking at official corruption a. lot of Independence you want them not to. be under the thumb of the political. leaders they're supposed to be actually. investigating precisely so that way of. doing business lasted really from 1978. to 199 9 and in 1999 there was a sea.

change in how special prosecutors got. their jobs this happened in the wake of. another political Scandal the Whitewater. Affair if you remember that was the. event that kind of consumed the Clinton. White House you know it was an. investigation by the special prosecutor. kenstar it started as this real estate. deal and it eventually metastasized of. course into a full-blown presidential. sex scandal and it was at that point.

that there was kind of a consensus in. Washington that special prosecutors. maybe had too much power and the idea. was let's move the framework and bring. special prosecutors inside the justice. department so that there was a little. more accountability and what happened. was the independent Council Act was. allowed to expire and in place of that.

law that was passed by Congress special. prosecutors were given their jobs by. internal justice department. regulations and so you move from a law. governing the way special councils were. appointed and operated to internal. justice department regulations doing. that. job they wanted to strike a balance.

between giving special prosecutors. enough. Independence that they could. successfully resist pressure from the. outside on their work but not so much. Independence that they might run a muck. and abuse their. powers and there was you know lists and. lists and lists of rules and regulations. about how they could operate they didn't. have to report on their day-to-day. activities to the attorney general the. Attorney General had the right to fire.

them for good cause right they had to. obey all the justice department rules. and so there was an attempt to put the. Attorney General on the hook for what. the special counsel was doing but still. give the special counsel enough leeway. not to feel pressure from essentially. their bosses so in a way it was a kind. of goldilock solution right the. prosecutor should have some Independence. but not so much that they have no. accountability yes that's that's right. it was absolutely Independence versus.

accountability a balancing. [Music]. act so then how did Canon's ruling. change all of this so judge Canon took a. wrecking ball to this way of doing. business by saying that justice. department regulations alone Aren't. Enough under the Constitution to appoint. or govern a special counsel there has to. be an actual law passed by Congress as.

in the old post-watergate days mhm or a. special Council has to get their job. just like any other high-ranking say. cabinet official they have to be. nominated by the president and confirmed. by the Senate and so she said neither of. those options A or B apply to Jack Smith. and so this just flew in the face of 25. years of sort of practice procedural.

practice of how the justice department. operates and it flew in the face of many. many Court decisions reaching back to. Watergate that have upheld the legality. of this mode of doing business and what. do we know about why judge Canon would. make this pretty expansive ruling I mean. given the fact that it departs from. years of precedent about how special. prosecutors have been appointed look. there's no way of knowing what judge. Canon was thinking the reasons behind.

judicial decisionmaking is basically. opaque that said there have been a. couple of Clues along the way so judge. Canon decided last month to hold two. days of hearings on this very subject. which was itself a bit unusual because. there was so much Court precedent. already in place that she didn't really. have to hold a hearing she could have. just read the other cases there's plenty. of information out there and made her.

decision that's not what she did and so. it really seemed to be a signal that she. was taking this issue very. seriously and you know there was another. interesting development shortly after. she held those hearings okay and that. was you'll recall that the Supreme Court. granted Trump a broad version of. immunity from Criminal prosecution the. Blockbuster case in this most recent.

term. correct so as part of that opinion. Clarence Thomas issued a very unusual. concurrence and in this concurrence he. essentially went out of his way to. express doubts about Jack Smith's. appointment even though that issue had. no relevance to the larger question that. the court was deciding on immunity H the.

lawyers in that case never raised the. question of Jack's Miss appointment at. all he just sort of took a tangent and. wrote a nine-page opinion that sounded a. lot like what judge Kon ultimately ended. up writing and so it was kind of widely. read as some sort of invitation to judge. Canon some sort of encouragement to.

judge Canon because her opinion cited. Justice Thomas's brief concurrence. several times and the legal reasoning. was very close to the reasoning that. Thomas offered for why Jack's missappear. [Music]. but related conversation about Judge. cannon from the moment that she was. assigned the classified documents case.

which is you know she has made so many. unusual decisions decisions that are. sort of outside the norm along the way. that legal Scholars who have been. watching this case have been trying to. figure out does she have some sort of. bias in favor of trump right and. honestly this most recent decision has. just sort of increased the volume and. intensity of that conversation because. the ruling not only dismissed in their.

entirety the charges that Trump was. facing in this case the decision was. handed down at a hugely consequential. political moment for Trump which was of. course on the first day of the. Republican National Convention where he. was going to be formally nominated as. the Republican's Presidential. nominee judge Canon handed Trump a huge. victory at a giant political.

moment and it's raised all kinds of. questions not only about this case in. particular but about what all cases. involving special prosecutors might look. like moving. [Music]. [Music]. forward we'll be right back.

okay so Alan you just said that there. are implications for this case and for. future cases but let's start with this. case what happens next Jack Smith has. promised to appeal judge Cannon's. decision and so what he will do is he. will take the case up to the appeals. court that sits over her which is the. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. in theory it's also possible that Jack. Smith could try to get judge Canon.

removed from the casee that would also. involve the 11th circuit but the point. is regardless of what the 11 circuit. ends up doing on any of these issues all. of this is very likely to end up at the. Supreme Court in front of Justice Thomas. and his colleagues and that will be the. moment we'll get a much clearer picture. of the future of special councils but in. the meantime it sounds like the case is. dead the case against Trump is dead.

there is no case against Trump anymore. and Alan does this affect the other Jack. Smith case you know the one about. Trump's involvement in January 6 because. it calls into question of course Jack. Smith's ability to bring any case it. certainly could eventually Trump's. lawyers in that case have not raised. this issue about Jack's missa. appointment they might do so don't. forget that case has been on hold for 7. months while the courts up to the.

Supreme Court were deciding the immunity. issue and it's about to become unfrozen. in the next few weeks so there will be a. flurry of activity in that case and one. of the things that might happen is the. lawyers in the Washington case the. January 6th case could say hey if Jack. Smith has been found to be invalid in. the case in Florida why not here too in. the meantime we're starting to see the. first signs that judge Canon's ruling is.

being used by defense lawyers in other. cases involving other special counsels. trying to use it to their advantage so. for. example hours after judge kenan's. decision came down lawyers out in Las. Vegas in a totally separate special. counsel case said hey our special. counsel should be invalidated too. because look what judge Canon said wow.

you know now there aren't a ton of cases. across the country that involve special. councils there are some there's another. case that involves Hunter Biden it's out. in California it's a tax case and the. lawyers in that case have already tried. to claim that the special counsel David. Weiss in that instance was invalidly. appointed who knows will they use judge. Cannon's ruling to seek to reopen that. question maybe remains to be seen so.

there are some trickle down effects here. already yeah I mean small as they may be. yes and all of this is just sort of. percolating right now until as we. discussed it sort of makes its way up. the food chain to the Supreme Court. which will really should it be so. inclined make some. changes okay so say this case were to. stand what would that mean for that. balance you were talking about before in.

terms of you know prosecutors and their. independence Independence on the one. hand versus accountability to public. officials on the other clearly judge. Cannon has come down on the side that. special prosecutors need to be more. constrained that there aren't enough. regulations on them so on the spectrum. of Independence and accountability she. wants much more accountability and much. less Independence and that issue once it.

gets played out through the courts could. have important ramifications in a world. in which Donald Trump retakes the White. House and Carries through on his. promises to weaponize the justice. department against his enemies who will. be there should special councils be. stripped of the Independence that they. have traditionally have to investigate.

the kinds of abuses of prosecutorial. power that Trump is contemplating that. Trump has promised to do and so at the. moment that this country might most need. to look to Independent prosecutors to. hold powerful political figures. accountable it's conceivable that their. powers of Independence might be. constrained so in the longer term this. ruling really could have some pretty far. reach consequences I mean depending on.

how it moves through the courts and on. what happens in November and in the. immediate term I have to imagine that. the political implications are going to. be pretty profound too yes that's right. judge Ken's decision didn't only just. get rid of this case for Trump what it. really did is it bolstered a narrative. that he has been pushing from the very. beginning of all of these cases which is. that they were. brought by a prosecutor who shouldn't.

have been there in the first place and. that they were. unconstitutional and Trump can now point. to a ruling by a federal judge that. essentially says this guy Jack Smith who. has brought these two Federal cases. against me got his job improperly and. should never have been in place to begin. with so what judge Canon has done is. hand Trump a political cudel at this.

extraordinary moment in his presidential. campaign right as he's getting the. nomination and that allows him to kind. of push back against one of the central. arguments that the Biden campaign has. made against him which is that he is a. convicted felon with four criminal cases. brought against. him and you know Trump now gets to point. to. a federal judge's ruling that ratifies.

his own. narrative so whether she meant to or not. what judge Cannon has essentially given. Trump is a way to say hey you don't have. to believe me believe her The Witch Hunt. is. [Music]. real Alan thank you you're welcome. [Music].

we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you should know. today a jury in New York found Senator. Robert Menendez a Democrat of New Jersey. guilty on all counts in a sweeping. scheme to sell his office to foreign. powers and corrupt businessmen in.

exchange for hundreds of thousands of. dollars in cash a luxury car and bars of. gold I have never been anything but a. patriot of my country and for my country. I have never ever been a foreign agent. speaking after the verdict Menendez. remained defiant and vowed to. appeal Menendez is the first US senator. to be convicted of acting as a foreign. agent he now faces potentially decades. in prison meanwhile in Washington Senate.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on. Menendez whose term expires at the end. of the year to resign immediately New. Jersey Democratic governor Phil Murphy. said that if Menendez steep down he. would make a temporary appointment to. fill the seat. [Music]. [Music].

today's episode was produced by Nina. Feldman will Reed and AA tutter V it was. edited by Mark George with help from. Paige cowt contains original music by. Rowan Nimo Dan Powell Alicia bitu and. Diane Wong and was engineered by Alyssa. Moxley our theme music is by Jim. brunberg and Ben Lanser of wonderly. [Music].

that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina. tavernes see you tomorrow. [Music].