Trump moves to affirm Mar-a-Lago case dismissal by blasting Biden over 'lock him up' comment and attacking Jack Smith
Source: Law & Crime
Oct 26th, 2024, 11:09 am
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump late Friday filed their reply to the government’s appeal of the Mar-a-Lago case dismissal. In an 85-page filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the defense sought to maintain the status quo by insisting that special counsel Jack Smith was “correctly” defanged by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon after being “unlawfully” granted his authority to prosecute by a White House bent on exacting a political vendetta.
“There is not, and never has been, a basis for Jack Smith’s unlawful crusade against President Trump,” the brief begins. “For almost two years, Smith has operated unlawfully, backed by a largely unscrutinized blank check drawn on taxpayer dollars. More than $36 million has been spent unjustly targeting the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election, President Trump, through unprecedented encroachments on Executive power, with President Biden wrongly and inappropriately urging to ‘lock him up’ only days before the filing of this brief as part of the election-interference strategy.”
In the heat of the summer, the Southern Florida judge, with a surprise ruling, ordered a kibosh on proceedings based on a novel understanding of the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In August, Smith filed his opening salvo in a bid to resuscitate the long-beleaguered case. Now, the 45th president aims to make sure the Mar-a-Lago indictment stays dead as a doornail.
The heart of the defense’s argument is that Smith was not appointed “by Law.” This constitutional requirement boils down to a claim the prosecutor ought to have been either confirmed by the Senate — in the manner of, say, a U.S. Attorney — or “authorized” by statute. In Smith’s case, of course, there was never an attempt to go through the Senate — he was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/unlawful-crusade-trump-moves-to-affirm-mar-a-lago-case-dismissal-by-blasting-biden-over-lock-him-up-comment-and-attacking-jack-smiths-authority-as-unpersuasive-dictum/
Full headline: ‘Unlawful crusade’: Trump moves to affirm Mar-a-Lago case dismissal by blasting Biden over ‘lock him up’ comment and attacking Jack Smith’s authority as ‘unpersuasive dictum’
Link to FILING (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25253899-trump-reply-brief-11cca
Link to FILING (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25253899/trump-reply-brief-11cca.pdf
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