Jack Smith has dismissed suggestions from Donald Trump that his appointment as special counsel to oversee the federal classified documents case is unconstitutional, citing previous examples.
In court filings submitted Sunday, the special counsel dismissed the argument from Trump’s legal team that his November 2022 appointment by Attorney General Merrick Garland was invalid as it was not first approved by the Senate.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges over allegations he illegally retained classified materials after he left office in January 2021, then obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them.
The argument that Smith was unlawfully appointed by Garland as special counsel has been put forward by Trump’s lawyers as part of a bid to have the classified documents case thrown out.
Trump’s team has previously argued that former Republican Attorney General William Barr only appointed special counsels who had been confirmed by the Senate.
In response, Smith has now cited three examples of Barr appointing special counsels who were not approved by the Senate during his first term in the 1990s.
“Those appointments included; Nicolas Bua (appointed in November 1991 to investigate the Inslaw matter); Malcolm Wilkey (appointed in March 1992 to investigate the House banking matter) [and] Frederick Lacey (appointed in October 1992 to investigate the ‘Iraqgate’ matter),” Smith wrote.
Barr cited a law that grants him the authority to appoint officials to investigate matters without Senate approval when he appointed Special Counsel John Durham to investigate the origins of an FBI inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 United States election, reported CNN.
Garland cited the same law when he announced the appointment of Smith as special counsel. Garland also said that the Department of Justice has “long recognized that in certain extraordinary cases” it is in the public interest for the DOJ to make such appointments.
Trump’s legal team has been contacted for comment via email.
The filing from Smith arrived after Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the classified documents case, held a hearing about the arguments and the legality of the special counsel’s appointment on Friday.
During the hearing, Smith’s team noted a similar challenge—regarding the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia ahead of the 2016 election—had failed.
Arguments on whether Smith was illegally appointed as special counsel in the classified documents will continue in Florida on Monday.
The judge, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, indefinitely postponed the federal classified documents trial while she rules on a number of legal arguments, including motions to dismiss from the former president.
Read the full article here
