Special counsel Jack Smith will appeal a Monday ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon that dismissed the government’s classified documents case against former President Donald Trump.
Cannon ruled Monday morning to throw out Smith’s case on the basis that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. The ruling was a massive victory for Trump, but Smith will look to have Cannon’s ruling overturned or overruled in order to resuscitate his prosecution of the former president.
“The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel,” a spokesman for Smith’s office said in a statement announcing the special counsel’s intent to appeal the ruling. “The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order.”
Before Cannon issued her bombshell ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the legality of Smith’s appointment in his opinion for the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, stating in that opinion that the appointment “may violate our constitutional structure.”
Trump faced 41 felony counts for his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Cannon previously delayed the trial date indefinitely in May.
“Both the Appointments and Appropriations challenges as framed in the Motion raise the following threshold question: is there a statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution?” Cannon wrote in her ruling. “After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no.”
“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Cannon added in her Monday ruling.
