'I Was Shocked': Lawyer Reacts To Judge Aileen Cannon Dismissing Trump Classified Documents Case

5 months ago

Neama Rahmani, President of West Coast Trial Lawyers, joined Forbes Senior Legal Editor Liane Jackson on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the dismissal of the classified documents case of President Trump.

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Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, I'm Leanne Jackson, senior law editor at Forbes, and I am joined today

00:06by Nima Rahmani.

00:08He is the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and also a former federal prosecutor.

00:13And I wanted to talk to you.

00:15I'm glad that you're with us because as a former federal prosecutor, I wanted to find

00:18out a little bit more because today we're talking about Judge Eileen Cannon and her

00:22latest decision to dismiss the classified documents case against former President Trump

00:27to dismiss the entire case.

00:29And one of her reasons, one of her reasons in the decision was that she felt that special

00:34prosecutor Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed.

00:38I want to get your take on that and what this means for going forward and for potential

00:43appeal.

00:44Leanne, I was shocked.

00:46We have decades of precedent appointing special prosecutors in this country.

00:51Judge Cannon ruled that that appointment was unconstitutional for two reasons.

00:56Senior officers of the United States, like the attorney general and U.S. attorneys, have

01:00to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

01:04So Judge Cannon ruled that Smith's appointment violated the appointments clause of the Constitution.

01:10She also said that because the special counsel is funded automatically, that violates the

01:17appropriations clause of the Constitution, which requires Congress to affirmatively decide

01:23whether to appropriate funds or not.

01:26Do you think this was quite an interesting decision?

01:31Some people call this sort of a stretch and that a lot of her decisions have seemed to

01:35be trending towards finding ways to at least at the minimum delay the case.

01:39And in this case, she's tossed out the entire case.

01:43What do you think about the reasoning behind these that you described just now?

01:49Judge Cannon is either a bad judge or she's biased.

01:52She's considering arguments that no other judge would, and she's favoring Trump at every

01:58possible turn.

01:59I felt that she may dismiss the case, but on presidential immunity, the Supreme Court

02:04gave her a very clear path to do so.

02:06But to rule that the special counsel is unconstitutionally appointed, that's something that has ramifications

02:14not just for this case, even though she said a ruling is just limited to this case.

02:18Think about Hunter Biden, who has been and continues to be prosecuted by a special counsel.

02:24The same reasoning would apply to his case.

02:26Would his case be dismissed?

02:28No other judge would have considered this argument.

02:30No other judge would have granted this argument.

02:33I wouldn't be surprised if Judge Cannon gets reversed on appeal by the 11th Circuit or

02:37even the Supreme Court.

'I Was Shocked': Lawyer Reacts To Judge Aileen Cannon Dismissing Trump Classified Documents Case

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