WASHINGTON (AP) – Lawyers for former United States (US) President Donald Trump have urged a federal appeals court to uphold the dismissal of the classified documents case against him, saying a judge was correct in ruling that the prosecutor who brought the charges was illegally appointed.
The case charging Trump with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida had long been seen as legally perilous for the Republicans’ White House nominee, but US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed it in July after concluding that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment to the job was unlawful.
The ruling brought an abrupt halt to the case, ensuring there would be no trial before the November presidential election. Another case brought by Smith, this one charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was delayed by a Supreme Court opinion conferring broad immunity on former presidents.
Smith’s team has appealed the documents decision, calling the ruling by Cannon, who was nominated for the bench by Trump, contrary to decades of precedent. If allowed to stand, prosecutors said, the ruling would call into question the legality of hundreds of appointments across.
Trump’s team responded with its own filing late Friday, telling the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals to leave Cannon’s ruling in place.
“There is not, and never has been, a basis for Jack Smith’s unlawful crusade against President Trump. For almost two years, Smith has operated unlawfully, backed by a largely unscrutinised blank check drawn on taxpayer dollars,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
