Fort Pierce - Monday July 15, 2024: Judge Cannon's decision dismissing the Fort Pierce classified documents case against ex-president Trump defies a warning to her filed with the court this past Friday by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
In their motion for dismissal, which Judge Cannon has now approved, Trump's lawyers threw in a reference to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ reference to Special Counsels in the high court's July 1 immunity decision. Thomas questioned the legality of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel maintaining the such appointments need Senate confirmation.
Three days ago on July 12th Smith, in what he titled a 'Notice of Supplemental Authority', wrote:
"Trump’s notice also refers to Justice Thomas’s concurrence addressing the Special Counsel’s authority to prosecute."
"That single-Justice concurrence—addressing an issue that Trump did not raise ... that the parties did not brief, and that was not relevant to the question presented to, or decided by, the Court—neither binds this Court nor provides a sound basis to deviate from the uniform conclusion of all courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel ."
"The Supreme Court found that the statutes on which the Government principally relies here ... support the appointment of the Special Prosecutor in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 694 (1974).”
Trump's defense lawyers have argued that the Special Counsel was illegally appointed. They maintained that under the Constitution's Appointments Clause the Justice Department has no legal authority to appoint a Special Counsel. They also contended that the Special Counsel's office has been illegally funded.
Judge Cannon agreed with these claims in her Monday decision to dismiss the case against Trump. She made her decision, even though Special Counsel Smith pointed out to her that Federal Courts, including the Supreme Court, have for decades upheld the constitutionality of the Justice Department's authority to appoint Special Counsels.