Mar-a-Lago docs judge lets ex-Bush AG join arguments against Jack Smith appointment

30 May 2024

Special counsel Jack Smith's federal Mar-a-Lago documents case against former President Donald Trump has run into a long list of obstacles.

Judge Aileen Cannon has repeatedly delayed the case — which is on hold indefinitely and appears unlikely to go to trial before the November election. And the Florida-based Trump appointee has forcefully rejected Smith's request to impose a limited gag order against Trump, unlike Judge Tanya Chutkan in Smith's election interference case.

One of the arguments that some of Trump's allies have been making is that Smith's appointment as special counsel was illegally made by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland — a claim Smith has slammed as nonsense. And former Attorney General Michael Mukasey is now expressing his views on the matter in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

Law & Crime's Matt Naham reports, "U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, on Wednesday, (May 29), granted an unopposed motion to add Michael Mukasey, the 81st U.S. attorney general who served during George W. Bush's presidency, as an amicus curiae. In a Tuesday motion for leave to join a group of existing amici, Mukasey asserted his time and experience as attorney general will aid Cannon as she considers the former president's motion to dismiss the Espionage Act case on unlawful appointment grounds."

Naham notes that some of Trump's supporters are claiming that Smith should have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate before he could act as a special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). And Smith has countered that the same argument was used against former special counsel Robert Mueller during the Russia probe and rejected.

"Trump's lawyers have argued, as Hunter Biden's separately have, that the special counsel was unlawfully appointed and funded, claiming that Smith is a 'principal officer' whose appointment by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland required confirmation by the U.S. Senate," the Law & Crime reporter explains. "But these same arguments were raised during Mueller's Russia investigation and lost time and again, as courts ruled the special counsel is an 'inferior officer' who doesn’t need to be confirmed by the Senate and still answers to the U.S. attorney general."

Smith has noted that "under governing authority," a DOJ special counsel is an "inferior officer" who may be appointed by an attorney general and is "subject to supervision and oversight" by that person.

Read Law & Crime's full report at this link.

From Your Site Articles