Cannon allows brief from experts who pummel Trump's convoluted bid to toss Mar-a-Lago case based on unlawful appointment

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Law & Crime

Apr 4th, 2024, 11:17 am


On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — the federal judge whose rulings in the Mar-a-Lago documents case against Donald Trump have raised eyebrows for appearing to favor the man who appointed her in late 2020 — allowed a motion to be filed in her court that positively pummeled the ex-president.

“Demonstrably incorrect” is just one way a group of constitutional lawyers and elected and federal officials — including a slew of former U.S. attorneys general — described Donald Trump‘s interpretation of the law as the former president pushes to have his Espionage Act indictment in Florida dismissed on grounds that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed.

Nineteen experts signed onto the brief including former federal prosecutors like Donald Ayer, who served under George H.W Bush and Ronald Reagan; Stuart Gerson, a former acting attorney general; and Philip Allen Lacovara, former counsel to the special prosecutor during Watergate and drafter of the brief for the government in U.S. v. Nixon. Other government officials like former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman and former U.S. Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera signed on as well as former U.S. Representative for Missouri and onetime Assistant Attorney General Tom Coleman. The full list of signatories along with the brief is available here.

In February, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the indictment due to what they argued was Smith’s “unlawful appointment and funding.” Smith was appointed as special counsel in November 2022 but should not have been, according to Trump, because the Constitution’s Appointments Clause and Appropriations Clause forbade the assignment of a “private citizen and like-minded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of the United States.” Special counsel, Trump also contends, can only be approved with confirmation by the Senate.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/at-war-with-precedent-and-reason-cannon-allows-brief-from-experts-who-pummel-trumps-convoluted-bid-to-toss-mar-a-lago-case-based-on-unlawful-appointment-of-smith/

---

Full headline: ‘At war with precedent and reason’: Cannon allows brief from experts who pummel Trump’s ‘convoluted’ bid to toss Mar-a-Lago case based on ‘unlawful appointment’ of Smith

Link to BRIEF (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.429.0.pdf

[Hikerchick57]

1. I think she's scared now and she should be because of her behavior in this case!

[agingdem]

3. Cannon is too smug to be scared...

I think she's looking for a way out and she's daring Jack Smith to mandamus her...and I think she knows Trump is headed for a loss in November and a Supreme Court appointment as a reward for doing Trump's bidding will never happen..

[LuvLoogie]

7. She's not scared; she's buying time.

The Federalists don't want her to lose control. or they've decided to cut trump loose.

[mpcamb]

12. I agree. I think the play is head-fake Left, then go Right.

[Hikerchick57]

24. Yes, definitely, that sounds like her game.

[brush]

2. She must be feeling the heat from SC Smith's threat of Mandamus...

to allow that brief. IMO she's on thin ice on won't be on that case long.

[Fla Dem]

4. Outstanding. Could only go so far before the unlawful favoritism caught up with her.

Hopefully she now realizes she is backing a losing horse.

[FakeNoose]

5. Jack Smith really needs to get her off this case, whatever it takes

Chump is toast, either way. But why is a federal judge bending over backwards to favor the defendant?
Well of course we know the real reason "why," but a determination needs to be made by an impartial court.
She's tainted and biased, time for her to go.

[lastlib]

15. We should be wary of that on one score.....

It could mean further delay, which could push it past election. A new judge would need some time to get up to speed on the case, and we don't know how long that could take. I think there is at LEAST a SLIM chance "Loosey" Cannon could get pressed into getting it going in time to wrap before the election (whether it will happen or not is, of course, anybody's guess...)

I'm just wary of doing it at this point. YMMV.

[Escurumbele]

16. "Chump is toast, either way"...All that has happened in the last few years is making a pessimist out of me.

Very sad. On one birthday card that my peers gave me at the office, someone wrote on the card "If I could bottle your optimism and positive look on life, I would become a millionaire."...well, that is slowly going out the window, I am still an optimist for many things, but I am becoming a pessimist when it comes to the USA judicial system, I cannot believe the orange thug is still at large, he hasn't even had to get in a getaway car, the judicial system keeps opening doors for him.

Jack Smith should have asked the 11th circuit a long time ago to have Cannon recused from the documents trial, why is everyone waiting so long?

Disgusting! to say the least. So anyway, I will believe it when I see it, and believe me, I dream of the SOB in an orange suit every day.

[onenote]

17. Why is Smith waiting? Because he's smart enough not to file a motion that he would lose.

You think you're smarter and more experienced in these matters?

It's easy for armchair quarterbacks, including those who are "experts" to sit on their couches and say what they'd be doing when they don't actually have to do it.

[Escurumbele]

19. Why are you attacking me? Something wrong? I am allowed to comment, but obviously YOU are smarter than

all of us, and you must have a direct connection to Jack Smith to know why he does what he does.

So please, accept my apologies and pass them along to Jack Smith as well next time you talk to him.

By the way, Neil Katyal disagrees with you, but please do not insult him, he seems to know what he is talking about, not as much as you do, of course, but close, he just happens to be in that environment.

Gee whiz!

[onenote]

21. Sorry if I came across as an attack on you. My frustration got the better of me.

What I'm tired of is the "experts" being so certain that Smith can get Cannon tossed from the case by the 11th Circuit -- a court with a Chief Judge appointed by GW Bush, six Trump appointees, one Clinton, three Obama, and one Biden. An appellate court removing a judge from a case is something that is rarely sought and even more rarely done. And what Katyal and some others don't acknowledge is that Cannon's most recent move was to deny Trump's motion to dismiss and that she expressly decided not to decide what jury instruction she would give. Consequently, I would be surprised if Smith files a petition for mandamus asking the appeals court to order Cannon to make a ruling on a legal issue that she hasn't decided one way or another as yet. We all may think we know what she'll do down the road, but given how unusual it is for a court to grant a mandamus petition in the first place, its a stretch for anyone to assume the court of appeals would act based on speculation.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. What's her game?

[DENVERPOPS]

8. I think we can all agree with the old adage

There is nothing worse than a "little" person, who is given "alot" of power......

It is mind boggling that such a biased little piss ant, in the giant scheme of things, can repeatedly effect the entire nation's proceedings.....

(I constantly worry about use of the word effect and affect, Same with farther and further....
Any English teachers out there that can explain the correct usage for either, and how to remember it????
I often reflect on the movie with Sean Connery being a reclusive master of writing, and a black student correcting his english professor on his mis-use of further/farther........LOL

[HUAJIAO]

13. In this case it should be "affect" which is a verb, whereas effect is a noun.

[DENVERPOPS]

23. Thx

I knew you people would have the answers.....

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. OT: You can measure how far.

[DENVERPOPS]

22. Thank you

Great!

[NanaCat]

9. With a real judge, this Smith appointment nonsense

Would be dismissed immediately for one reason: The US legal code spells out something about special prosecutors. To wit:

§ 600.1 Grounds for appointing a Special Counsel.

The Attorney General, or in cases in which the Attorney General is recused, the Acting Attorney General, will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted and—

(a) That investigation or prosecution of that person or matter by a United States Attorney's Office or litigating Division of the Department of Justice would present a conflict of interest for the Department or other extraordinary circumstances; and

(b) That under the circumstances, it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to assume responsibility for the matter.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/chapter-VI/part-600/section-600.1

QEbloodyD.

[Raven123]

10. She's dragging this out hoping TFG wins and "his DOJ" ends the prosecution

[orangecrush]

11. 'At war with precedent and reason'

Pretty much sums up Trump.

[Mysterian]

18. Nothing makes the USA look like a banana republic more than corrupt judges like Cannon

Trump-publicans seek to destroy the rule of law in the USA install an insane plutocracy.

[nakocal]

20. She is allowing their brief

To use as cover to keep from being recused as she is doing her best to get Trump off. She is an accessory after the fact.