ICYMI, Special Counsel Jack Smith is challenging utterly corrupt Judge Aileen Cannon's outrageous decision to dismiss the slam- dunk classified documents case against her cult leader:
Special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal appeals court Monday to reinstate the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, saying a judge’s decision that dismissed the prosecution was at odds with longstanding Justice Department practice and must be reversed.
Smith’s team said U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon made a grievous mistake by ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. That position, prosecutors wrote in a brief filed with the Atlanta-based appeals court, runs counter to rulings by judges across the country as well as “widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government.”
If allowed to stand, they warned, it could ”jeopardize the longstanding operation of the Justice Department and call into question hundreds of appointments throughout the Executive Branch.”
“The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,” prosecutors wrote. “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.”
The appeal is the latest development in a prosecution that many legal experts have long considered a straightforward criminal case given the breadth of evidence, including surveillance video and an audio recording of Trump’s own words, that Justice Department investigators accumulated during the course of the probe. But over the last year, the case has been snarled by delays as Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, entertained assorted Trump team motions before ultimately dismissing the prosecution in a stunning decision that brought the proceedings to at least a temporary halt. [snip]
The case, one of four federal and state prosecutions brought against Trump, includes dozens of felony charges alleging that Trump illegally retained classified documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida and obstructed the government’s efforts to get them back. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
At issue in the appeal is a provision of the Constitution known as the Appointments Clause, which requires presidential approval and Senate confirmation for certain public officials, including judges, ambassadors and “all other officers of the United States.” (our emphasis)
How long the 11th Circuit will take to rule on the Special Counsel's motion is unclear, but however it rules (even if it removes the corrupt Cannon from the case, something the Special Counsel didn't ask for), there's no possibility of the case going to trial before the November election. The appeal may also end up in the Republican Supreme Court, where corrupt Justice Clarence Thomas has already signaled he thinks Special Counsel appointments are invalid (which prompted Cannon to issue her ruling).
With the prospect of VP Harris becoming the 47th President of the United States (everybody vote, dammit!) no longer a long- shot, Cannon's maneuvering to help her benefactor avoid the consequences of his felonious behavior may yet come a cropper. Obviously, the election result as well as how many other corrupt Republican judges in the system are willing to help their cult leader will be the final test of whether the most manifestly lawless person ever to become President faces those consequences.
(Photo illustration: Salon/Getty Images/ US District Court for the Southern District of Florida)
3 comments:
Ummm not quite yet this will require possibly a year of study as to the validity of the case. That's not to say we aren't seriously concerned.
Seafury -- one thing we think is likely in a potential Harris administration is to get a replacement for Garland who'll aggressively prosecute this and other Federal cases. Better late than never.
We can only hope.
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