Washington: Fresh tension could grip former U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of the presidential election as Special Counsel Jack Smith seeks to reinstate his office’s classified documents case against Trump in his first formal filing since Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal case last month. In a brief filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Smith argued that Cannon’s decision to end the case, based on the claim that the prosecutors’ office lacked constitutional authority, was “novel” and “lacked merit.”
Cannon had ruled the Justice Department didn’t have the ability to appoint or fund special counsels like Smith.
Smith’s team also cast the decision from Cannon as not just affecting other special counsel prosecutions – of which there are several ongoing in other courts, against Trump and Hunter Biden, among others – but also as potentially affecting the power of leaders across the federal government, as reported by CNN.
“If the Attorney General lacks the power to appoint inferior officers, that conclusion would invalidate the appointment of every member of the Department who exercises significant authority and occupies a continuing office, other than the few that are specifically identified by statute,” Smith’s office wrote in the 81-page filing.
“The district court’s rationale would likewise raise questions about hundreds of appointments throughout the Executive Branch, including in the Departments of Defence, State, Treasury, and Labor,” the prosecutors added.
Trump was charged last summer with several counts of mishandling sensitive government documents taken from his White House at the end of the presidency. The Republican presidential nominee also faces several obstruction charges for alleged efforts to hinder the federal probe into the materials.
The former president and his two co-defendants – Trump employees also accused of obstruction – have pleaded not guilty.
Cannon’s decisions, celebrating the unlawful appointment of Smith as Special Counsel and the irregular finance of his office, are currently being scrutinized by the 11th Circuit, CNN reported. Cannon was of the view that, despite previous court rulings endorsing the deployment of special counsels, the Justice Department lacked the congressional permit for such appointments. Moreover, lawmakers did not approve the funding of Smith’s office.
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