Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman slammed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for dismissing the case against Donald Trump in the Southern District of Florida on Monday. In doing so, Litman invoked Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump term compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The former president had been charged with willfully retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. On Monday, Cannon tossed the case after deeming the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith unconstitutional. Her ruling flies in the face of multiple precedents upholding the constitutionality of the appointment of such prosecutors.
Some theorized that Cannon, whom Trump appointed to her position in 2020, took a cue from U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas, who wrote a concurrence this month in Trump v. U.S. In that case, the court ruled that presidents enjoy “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for all “official acts.”
“As a legal decision by this district court judge, it’s simply indefensible,” Litman told CNN on Monday night. “It almost doesn’t make sense to try to talk about it in legal terms. This is, as I said, the first Project 2025 opinion. The principle is only loyalty to Trump.”
Litman went on to say that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland could simply authorize the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida to take over the case, but such a move could feed allegations of impartiality. At the same time, that hasn’t stopped Republicans from baselessly accusing the Department of Justice of prosecuting Trump at the behest of President Joe Biden.
“I think she he’s done full service to Trump because the 11th circuit, I doubt has time to reverse this before the election. The state of play for now is it’s been reversed,” Litman added. “That check is now paid in full on her part – the very best she could have done for him. The 11th circuit ought to reverse it unless, of course, Trump becomes president, in which case, he’ll just say goodbye and order DOJ to stand down.”
Trump remains under indictment in two other jurisdictions and has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Watch above via CNN.
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