Trump classified documents case: Special counsel urges appeals court to reverse dismissal

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday urged a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court’s decision to dismiss the criminal case charging former President Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in a stunning move in mid-July threw out that case on the grounds that Smith’s appointment violated the U.S. Constitution.

Smith in Monday’s court brief argued that Cannon’s ruling strayed from binding legal precedent, “misconstrued” the laws authorizing the appointment of special counsels and “took inadequate account” of the history of those appointments.

Cannon’s ruling “conflicts with an otherwise unbroken course of decisions, including by the Supreme Court,” that the U.S. attorney general is empowered to appoint special counsels, Smith wrote in the filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

“This Court should reverse,” Smith wrote.

Lawyers for Trump, who is the Republican presidential nominee against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Smith’s brief.

Even if the appeals court grants Smith’s request to reverse Cannon’s decision, there is virtually no chance that Trump would face trial on the charges until well after the Nov. 5 presidential election.

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