STORY: U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked a federal appeals court to revive the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of retaining classified documents.
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That’s after a Trump-appointed judge in a lower court dismissed the indictment in July, ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed and did not have the legal authority to bring the case.
Smith’s Monday court filing argued that Aileen Cannon was wrong in ruling that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint Smith in 2022 violated the U.S Constitution.
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Smith and his team urged the appellate court to reverse her order and to schedule oral arguments, writing that Cannon had “deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent” and also “misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment.”
In the case, Trump was indicted on charges that he willfully retained sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in 2021 and obstructed government efforts to retrieve the material.
Trump’s lawyers had previously challenged the legal authority for Smith’s appointment, arguing that Smith’s office was not created by Congress and the special counsel was not confirmed by the Senate.
Cannon’s decision to dismiss the case came not long after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump had broad criminal immunity from prosecution for official actions he took during his time in office.
Her ruling marked a legal victory for Trump, but has also faced staunch criticism, with many attorneys saying it flies in the face of prior court decisions which all upheld the legality of rules the Justice Department has relied on for years to appoint special counsels.
Trump’s campaign said on Monday that the court should reject Smith’s request and that other cases the former president faces should be dismissed.
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