https://www.justsecurity.org/97747/trump-docs-case-dismissed/
...Cannon’s rulings since Trump’s indictment in the documents case left little room to hand prosecutors an appealable issue and seek her removal — until now.
“Prior to this decision, I thought it was unlikely that he would do so,” Seligman said, referring to the odds that Smith would seek to remove Cannon from the case during an 11th Circuit appeal. “He’s decided, presumably as a strategic matter, that that was not warranted yet, and I think that this decision may change that calculus.”
Attorney Josh Blackman, who argued in support of Trump’s challenge to the special prosecutor, praised what he described as Cannon’s “serious, thoughtful, careful opinion” in a phone interview.
Appellate Risks and Rewards
Smith can appeal the dismissal back to the 11th Circuit, where his team prevailed before Trump was indicted, or he can try to leapfrog the appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to do to expedite Trump’s immunity appeal in his case alleging interference in the 2020 presidential election. In the immunity case, the Supreme Court waited for the D.C. Circuit to weigh in before taking up the case, and handing Trump a sweeping victory on the last day of their term.
If affirmed on appeal, the logic of Cannon’s ruling arguably could leave other Justice Department officials vulnerable, such as the Justice Department’s lead attorney handling Supreme Court arguments (the principal deputy solicitor general) and those that help supervise the agency’s various divisions (known as deputy assistant attorneys general).
“This decision, if it’s allowed to stand, would call into question the lawfulness of something like a dozen or more very important officials within the Department of Justice, and so I think that there’s a very strong institutional interest in having this decision reversed on the merits,” Seligman, a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, said.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump’s election interference case, is not bound by Cannon’s ruling, but she is bound by the D.C. Circuit precedent contradicting it. Should Trump press his challenge of Smith’s appointment in Chutkan’s court, there would be no place left to go but the Supreme Court.
Especially in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, any order affirming Cannon’s ruling would make criminal accountability for former presidents all the more elusive.
“If this ruling stands, it will become very hard to appoint quasi-independent special counsels to investigate an incumbent administration,” Blackman, who argued in Trump’s support, noted in a phone interview....
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