Harry Litman, a former federal prosecutor and acting assistant attorney general, said Monday that Judge Eileen Cannon’s dismissal of the classified documents lawsuit against former President Trump was “completely inexcusable.”
“As a legal decision by a district court judge, this is completely indefensible,” Litman told CNN’s Laura Coates on Monday night. “It makes almost no sense to try to talk about this from a legal perspective. This is, as I said, the first opinion on Project 2025.”
“The only principle is loyalty to Trump,” he added in the interview.
Litman’s criticism of Cannon came after he handed the former president his biggest legal victory to date by throwing out the entire classified documents indictment.
Judge Cannon ruled that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unlawful and dismissed 40 criminal charges accusing Trump of improperly handling classified documents and obstructing government efforts to recover them from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Smith said late Monday that he plans to appeal the sentence.
“The dismissal of this case departs from the uniform conclusions of all previous courts that have considered the issue of whether the Attorney General has the legal authority to appoint a special counsel,” Peter Carr, a spokesman for Smith’s office, said in a statement Monday.
“The Department of Justice has granted the special counsel leave to appeal the court’s order,” Carr added.
Litman noted how early the appeal was filed, but said of Cannon, “No matter how early it was, I think she would have cooperated fully with Trump because I don’t think the 11th Circuit has time to overturn this before the election.”
“The status quo is reversed,” Litman continued in the interview. Mediaite“The check was paid in full on her end.”
“It’s the best thing she could have done for him,” he continued. “The 11th Circuit should overturn it, unless, of course, Trump becomes president, in which case he’ll just say goodbye and tell the Justice Department to back off.”
Cannon’s decision to drop the case comes after he indefinitely postponed the trial earlier this year, citing the need to resolve a number of issues surrounding how classified information would be treated in court.
