Lawyers for former President Donald Trump argued Thursday that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed and should no longer receive public funds, according to a court filing. Filed a motion to dismiss the special counsel’s election interference case.
The election interference lawsuit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Smith has intensified over the past month, with Judge Tanya Chutkan on October 2 releasing a redacted version of Mr. Smith’s 165-page brief detailing the evidence in the case. Trump’s lawyers claim now It argued that the “unreasonable event” violated the “appointments and appropriations clause of the Constitution” because Smith was not properly appointed “by law.”
“Even if Smith is a legitimate official, which he is not, his appointment is “This conclusion is clearly unconstitutional. This conclusion follows from the lack of effective oversight of Smith and the extremely broad jurisdiction set forth in the appointment order,” the filing states. There is. “Furthermore, unless and until he is removed, Smith’s tenure will be governed by his subjective determination of when his so-called ‘job’ is ‘done.’ These features of Smith’s role also violate the Appointment Clause. ”
In November 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to oversee cases involving the former president, citing the lawyers’ claims that they violated the Appointments Clause, according to the filing. They were appointed by Smith as a “private citizen” to “target President Trump while he campaigned without legal basis to take back the Oval Office from his attorney general boss.” It is claimed that
Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks about the recently unsealed indictment containing four felonies against former President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. Trump was charged with four felonies for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
On July 15, Judge Eileen Cannon, who presided over Jack Smith’s second lawsuit against former President Trump over the mishandling of classified documents, ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was illegal. The court granted a motion by his lawyers to dismiss the lawsuit. In support of their motion, President Trump’s filing also cited a written opinion on presidential immunity from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which he said, “Whether the attorney general violated There are serious questions.” [our Constitutional] Build an organization by establishing a special prosecutor’s office, which is not established by law. ”
Trump’s lawyer referred to President Joe Biden’s recent remarks this week at the Democratic National Committee office in New Hampshire, where Biden quickly made it clear he meant Trump to be “locked up politically.” He called for Mr. Trump to be “locked up” before he could do so. (Related: Victor Davis Hanson issues dark warning about what Democrats will do if President Trump wins in 2024)
The lawyers also accused Mr. Smith and his firm of violating the spending clause, which “does not apply when Mr. Smith makes improper expenditures and collects more than $20 million from taxpayers.” It called for an end to the “spending of additional public funds.” Reliant on more than $16 million in additional funding from other unspecified “members of the Department of Justice” and used to unfairly target President Trump and his allies during the height of the campaign. There is. ”
Trump’s team claims that Smith and his office are “withdrawing funds from the Treasury without statutory authorization” and “expending funds” in violation of the law.
In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, President Trump said he would fire Smith within “two seconds” if he won the 2024 election and called Smith a “crook.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had objected to the release of Mr. Smith’s new press conference regarding presidential immunity, but Mr. Chutkan rejected the request and released the remaining evidence. In a written response on Oct. 18, Chutkan said withholding the special counsel’s evidence amounted to “election interference.”
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