Sayonara Trump Documents Case as Biden DOJ Appeals Invalidation of Smith Appointment and Dismissal of Indictment

As promised, the Biden-Harris Justice Department and its special counsel, Jack Smith, have appealed Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the Mar-a-Lago documents indictment against Trump.

In a scholarly 93-page opinion last month, Judge Cannon, of the federal district court in south Florida, held that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith violated the Constitution’s appointments clause. While the Biden-Harris DOJ postures as if Cannon, a Trump appointee, is simply in the tank for the former president, her construction of the clause echoes that adopted by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his immunity-case concurrence, as well as the views of former attorneys general Ed Messe and Michael Mukasey, among other solid constitutional scholars.