Author’s Note: Last Saturday (July 13), I published the first piece in what was to be a two-part series on the status of the federal prosecution of Donald Trump in Florida, in which Biden Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charged the former president with 32 counts of illegally retaining classified documents and eight counts of obstruction. I have since had to overhaul part two because on Monday (July 15), Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case, ruling that Smith’s appointment as a special counsel violated the Constitution’s appointment’s clause. Rather than promptly restart the case by reassigning it to a district U.S. attorney, Biden attorney general Merrick Garland has approved an appeal of Judge Cannon’s ruling. What follows is a discussion of the prosecution’s status in light of that decision.
The Democratic narrative about Donald Trump is that he is reckless and temperamentally unfit for the presidency. My own view is that Trump has a mercurial streak and is a social-media blowhard, but that he’s actually sheepish when it comes to action — relying on legal advisers to know when to ignore his outbursts (Fire Mueller!) and to implement policies that, unlike Biden’s usurpations, stay within constitutional and statutory boundaries.
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