- Judge Aileen Cannon had dismissed the case, saying Smith was illegally appointed.
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Special prosecutor Jack Smith on Monday asked a Florida court to revive the documents case against Donald Trump in the latest twist in the former president’s legal battles.
Trump scored a major victory last month when Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Smith had been illegally appointed and had no legal authority to bring the case.
But in his appeal, Smith argued that his decision broke with precedent.
“Congress has granted the Attorney General, like the heads of many executive departments, broad authority to structure the agency he heads to carry out the responsibilities imposed upon it by law,” Smith and his team wrote.
‘The district court’s contrary opinion conflicts with an unbroken course of decisions, including by the Supreme Court, that the Attorney General has such authority, and is at odds with widespread and long-standing appointment practices at the Department of Justice and across the government.’
Special counsel Jack Smith filed an appeal on Monday to revive the Trump documents case
Trump’s lawyers challenged Smith’s appointment on a thinly-supported theory that the special counsel’s office was not created by Congress and that he was not confirmed by the Senate.
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in his favor and also said the office had been illegally funded.
But legal experts quickly said his decision was unlikely to survive an appeal.
Still, the decision represented a major victory for Trump. It came days after he survived an assassination attempt and shortly after the Supreme Court said he enjoyed broad criminal immunity for official actions taken while in office.
The case included dozens of felony charges alleging that Trump illegally retained classified documents after leaving the White House and then obstructed government efforts to recover them.
FBI found stacks of government documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida
The case was one of four criminal cases Donald Trump faced after leaving office.
An FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home turned up hundreds of documents, including classified files that should never have been kept.
Trump pleaded not guilty.
The Justice Department quickly indicated it would appeal the decision to dismiss the charges and seek to revive the case.
“The court should vacate the order of dismissal and remand the case for further proceedings,” Smith and his team wrote in their 81-page filing.
They warned that failure to overturn the ruling would jeopardize other cases brought by the Justice Department and “call into question hundreds of appointments across the Executive Branch.”
FBI agents seized boxes of classified materials from Trump’s Florida club
Trump has long attacked the special counsel, calling Jack Smith “deranged” and criticizing the FBI’s search of his home.
At one point, the documents case appeared to be the simplest and most significant of the four criminal cases against Trump.
The evidence includes an audio recording and surveillance video.
Two other cases against Trump remain stalled, while in May a New York jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
