Trump classified documents dismissal highlights limits on special counsel powers

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : "Cannon did not completely foreclose the possibility of prosecuting Trump in the documents case, but she held that the use of a special counsel "to investigate and prosecute this action with the full powers of a United States Attorney" would need to go through the proper channels, either by Senate confirmation or passing a law.
44% : U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland originally appointed Smith in November 2022 to oversee two separate investigations of Trump, one pertaining to "efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election" and the other relating to classified documents.
36% : [of the U.S. Constitution] does not permit the Attorney General to appoint, without Senate confirmation, a private citizen and like-minded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of the United States," Trump alleged in a February filing.
35% : Cannon, whom Trump originally appointed to the bench, agreed: "The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers," she wrote on Monday.
32% : The appointed special master disagreed with Trump, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit later reversed Cannon's order, claiming that she had acted outside the scope of her authority.
30% : Granted, the order as written would allow Trump to avoid consequences for his actions -- retaining classified documents for no apparent reason other than a sense of entitlement, and obstructing the investigation, after making such political hay of his 2016 opponent's alleged mishandling of classified emails.
28% : Ever since, commentators have accused Cannon of being in the tank for Trump, or perhaps just in over her head.
27% : The raid came after more than a year of discussions in which Trump brushed off requests from the National Archives and Records Administration to return missing documents.
25% : Trump based his request on the premise that in fact he had secretly declassified all of the documents while leaving office, a theory Reason's Jacob Sullum called "implausible" and "legally irrelevant."

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