Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Florida Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the felony charges accusing former President Trump of mishandling classified documents “breathtakingly misguided,” and called for her ruling to be “appealed immediately.”
“This breathtakingly misguided ruling flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence,” Schumer said in a statement issued shortly after the ruling.
“It is wrong in the law and must be appealed immediately. This is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned,” he said.
Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, ruled that the entire criminal case against Trump must be thrown out because the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution.
She said that, after “careful study,” she determined that no legal statute grants an attorney general authority to appoint a federal officer with the “kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith.”
Trump faced 40 charges stemming from accusations he had mishandled classified records and obstructed the government’s retrieval of those records after he left the White House.
The ruling came the day the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee.
Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), a conservative Republican on the Judiciary Committee, hailed Cannon’s ruling as “good news.”
“Good news for America. Bad news for lawfare and the weaponization of our justice system,” Lee posted on the social media site X.