U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon is holding a hearing Friday to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit. classified documents indictment argued that the appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith against him was unconstitutional.
Trump’s lawyers filed the motion in February, arguing that the Constitution’s appointments clause “does not permit the Attorney General to appoint a private citizen and like-minded political ally to exercise his powers as prosecutor of the United States without the approval of the Senate.” therefore, Jack Smith lacks standing to prosecute this action.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel in November 2022, tasking him with overseeing federal investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents since becoming president, as well as efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers wrote that “because neither the Constitution nor Congress created the office of ‘Special Counsel’, Smith’s appointment is invalid.”
They also argued that funding Smith’s investigation violated the appropriations clause of the Constitution.
“President Biden’s DOJ is paying without responsibility or authorization for an ‘off the books’ politically motivated prosecution of Biden’s chief political opponent,” he said. “Instead of funding the Office of the Special Counsel through the normal budget process, Jack Smith is using a permanent unassigned appropriation that is not made available to the Special Counsel under its terms and the Reno Rules. Thus, Smith’s funding violates the Appropriations Clause.”
As a result, the court should dismiss the superseding indictment against him and two other defendants in the case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, they said.
In response, the special counsel’s team argued that the attorney general has the authority to appoint statutory “inferior officers” and that previous court decisions have upheld the attorney general’s authority to appoint special counsels.
These were the arguments of Trump’s legal team unsuccessfully brought against previous special prosecutorsIncluding Robert Mueller and David Weiss.
Outside parties will also be able to present arguments for up to 30 minutes in a Florida courtroom on Friday, with Trump and the special counsel’s teams each having the opportunity to rebut if necessary. Three groups submitted briefs and were granted leave to do so.
Friday’s hearing is one of three consecutive hearings Cannon has had, with the others set for Monday and Tuesday.
A previous hearing in the case has been canceled and no future date has been set. The audition comes just a few weeks later Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business documentsit was the first time a former president had been convicted of a crime.