Special Counsel Jack Smith Appeals Dismissal of Mar-A-Lago Case Against Trump on One America News Network
OAN Staff Abril Elfi
6:07 PM – Monday, August 26, 2024
Special counsel Jack Smith has appealed the ruling that dismissed his classified records Mar-a-Lago case against former President Donald Trump stating that his point is valid.
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Federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s case against Trump last month, saying that it violated “the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”
On Monday, Smith appealed Cannon’s ruling arguing that he had a “valid point.”
“The district court’s contrary view conflicts with an otherwise unbroken course of decisions, including by the Supreme Court, that the Attorney General has such authority, and it is at odds with widespread and long standing appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government,” Smith argued. “This Court should reverse.”
He continued saying that he was “properly funded through the congressionally enacted ‘permanent indefinite appropriation’ to ‘pay all necessary expenses of investigations and prosecutions by independent counsel appointed pursuant to’” U.S. code.
“The district court’s contrary conclusion depended solely on its erroneous determination that no ‘other law’ supported the Special Counsel’s appointment,” he added. “Because its premise was wrong, so was its conclusion.”
The Appointments Clause states that “ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”
“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 wrote in her decision last month.
“The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere – whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not,” she continued.
“In the case of inferior officers, that means that Congress is empowered to decide if it wishes to vest appointment power in a Head of Department, and indeed, Congress has proven itself quite capable of doing so in many other statutory contexts. But it plainly did not do so here, despite the Special Counsel’s strained statutory readings,” Cannon added.
“In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,” she said.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung reacted to Smith’s appeal and said that every case against Trump should be tossed.
“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation, not only should the dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida be affirmed, but be immediately joined by a dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Cheung said. “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Comrade Kamala’s Political Opponent, President Trump. Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”
Trump was charged as a result of Smith’s inquiry into whether he had any classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago home. He pleaded not guilty from all 37 felony counts from Smith’s investigation, which included false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and willful retention of information related to national defense.
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