Following the dismissal of the Mar-a-Lago documents case by Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday, special counsel Jack Smith has been authorized by the Department of Justice to appeal the decision. In her ruling throwing out the case, Cannon stated that Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution.
"The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel," spokesperson for Smith’s office Peter Carr told Fox News. "The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order."
Trump had pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts issued against him in the case, with charges including false statements, willful retention of national defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Cannon wrote in her 93-page ruling that Smith’s appointment as special counsel "violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution" and his "use of a permanent indefinite appropriation also violates the Appropriations Clause."
Cannon wrote that the challenges raised in the motion to dismiss from Trump's team asked whether there was a "statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution."
"After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no. None of the statutes cited as legal authority for the appointment— 28 U.S.C. §§ 509, 510, 515, 533—gives the Attorney General broad inferior-officer appointing power or bestows upon him the right to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith. Nor do the Special Counsel’s strained statutory arguments, appeals to inconsistent history, or reliance on out-of-circuit authority persuade otherwise."