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Special Counsel Jack Smith withdrew plans on Monday to appeal a Florida classified documents case against President Donald Trump’s co-defendants.
The move comes after Smith dropped his appeal against Trump in the classified documents case last month following the November election that included 37 criminal counts.
“The former president, along with Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate,” ABC News reported Monday.
“Smith’s appeal, to the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, came after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s case in July, citing the constitutionality of his appointment as special counsel,” it added.
Smith asked a federal appeals court in August to reinstate the classified documents case against Trump. The move came following the dismissal of the case by District Court Judge Aileen Cannon in July.
“The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,” Smith’s opening brief stated.
“In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels,” he told the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Cannon dismissed the case, citing that it violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. She claimed Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
The Appointments Clause requires the special counsel to be confirmed by the Senate. Smith has not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as special counsel.
“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 July decision.
“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 noted.
