Attorney General Merrick Garland rebuffed a federal judge’s decision this month to dismiss the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump led by special counsel Jack Smith.
District Court Judge Aileen Cannon of Florida agreed with defense attorneys who argued Smith’s appointment as special counsel by Garland in late 2022 was unconstitutional because it did not involve congressional approval.
“For more than 20 years I was a federal judge. Do I look like someone who would make that basic mistake about the law? I don’t think so,” Garland said during an interview with NBC News that aired on Tuesday.
Smith has already moved to appeal the ruling. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Atlanta, has set an August 27 deadline for the special counsel to file an opening briefing.
“Our position is that it’s constitutional and valid. That’s why we appealed,” Garland said. “I will say that this is the same process of appointing special counsel as was followed in the previous administration.”
He mentioned special counsels John Durham and Robert Mueller as examples and emphasized the trend stretches back further “over the decades going back to Watergate and the special prosecutor in that case” in the 1970s.
“Til now every single court, including the Supreme Court, that has considered the legality of a special counsel appointment has upheld it,” Garland said.
Cannon, who was nominated to her position by Trump, said that she was dismissing the case because Smith’s appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Cannon wrote that the clause “is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers.”
She added, “The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers.”
Trump, who is running another campaign for the presidency while facing multiple criminal matters, had pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges related to willful retention of classified documents and obstruction.
The former president responded to Cannon’s ruling by saying on Truth Social, “This dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts.”
Trump has contended with three other prosecutions while on the 2024 campaign trail, including a 2020 election case led by Smith in Washington, D.C. He is seeking to overturn the conviction in a New York hush-money case.
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