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.
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