Mar-a-Lago judge wants to hear more from the state and the defense about unlawful appointment and funding of Jack Smith

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Law & Crime

May 29th, 2024, 7:34 pm


The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents case has given a big hint as to how she will analyze, if not how she will rule on, a defense effort to dismiss the case over allegations that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed. In February, Trump’s defense filed a 16-page motion to dismiss, arguing the special counsel’s office was created in violation of the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution and funded in violation of the appropriations clause.

The motion argues the proper remedy for such alleged violations is the dismissal of the entire indictment. Since then, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has delved into similar appropriations issues – by upholding Federal Reserve funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). That case, notably, did not encapsulate any questions related to the appointments clause. Still, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would like to talk about it.

Titled, “President Trump’s Motion to Dismiss the Indictment Based on the Unlawful Appointment and Funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith,” the brief largely repeats arguments that have failed to remove authority from a special counsel in the past – specifically Robert Mueller during the long-drawn-out Russiagate investigation.

A hearing over Trump’s motion to dismiss is slated to occur on June 21. By June 11, the court wants the prosecution and the defense to submit supplemental briefs “on what impact, if any, the Supreme Court’s decision” in the pro-CFPB case has on the appropriations clause argument. The judge gave the parties a 15-page limit on those arguments – “exclusive of title/certificates, etc.”

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/mar-a-lago-judge-wants-to-hear-more-from-the-state-and-the-defense-about-unlawful-appointment-and-funding-of-jack-smith-in-light-of-recent-scotus-ruling-on-appropriations/

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Full headline: Mar-a-Lago judge wants to hear more from the state and the defense about ‘unlawful appointment and funding’ of Jack Smith in light of recent SCOTUS ruling on appropriations

[turbinetree]

1. It's really time that a Writ of Mandamus is filed..............

[onenote]

17. Ordering her to do what?

[riversedge]

31. Serious question--Who would file this??..

[Ocelot II]

45. Ordering her to do what, exactly?

Mandamus is an order compelling an official to perform duties they are required by law to perform. It can't be used to compel a judge to stop being stupid and biased.

[Irish_Dem]

54. Maybe ordering her to try the damn case and stop farting around.

All in latin legal terminology of course.

[Ocelot II]

56. Actually, having her proceed with the trial worries me more.

All this farting around with frivolous motions is bad enough, but the flip side of her delaying the trial is that at least she won't able to manage the trial to ensure he's acquitted right before the election. IMO an acquittal before the election would be worse than no trial at all. I would fully expect her to conduct voir dire (which is usually done by the court in federal trials) in such a way that enough MAGA jurors are selected to ensure at least a hung jury; to sustain defense objections and overrule prosecution objections, give defense-biased jury instructions, maybe even grant a directed verdict. Once a jury is seated double jeopardy attaches, and the prosecution can't appeal from an acquittal.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. It's a delay tactic from the defense, and the loose cannon picked up the thread

"Oooh, what is this shiny thread that dropped in front of me? I will have to carefully follow this to see if it leads anywhere (though even I think it won't go anywhere, wink)."

[jimfields33]

5. Might as well get this kind of crap out of the way.

The case won’t go to trial until after the Supreme Court decides its ruling. Judge chutkan should be going through these types of legal stuff to so when the Supreme Court makes it decision, the two judges are ready to go. I’m thinking this is going to work beautifully for Jack smith.

[I am Neo]

8. Unfortunately....

I'm not that confident in the SCOTUS. I think they may grant trump some sort of limited immunity. They shouldn't even have taken the case.

[Lonestarblue]

11. I think they'll find some excuse to toss the case back to the lower court for further review.

That will delay past the election and forever if Trump wins the election. Mission accomplished by the corrupt SC. If Biden wins and Democrats have control of Congress, expanding the court needs to be on the table from day one.

[2naSalit]

29. Smells coordinated to me.

I don't trust her or anyone she isn't critical of.

[PatSeg]

33. Yes, she's getting a lot of pressure

from someone(s). She's not even pretending to be fair and unbiased.

[bringthePaine]

3. enough Putinesca, toss her incompetent ass now

[Ray Bruns]

4. WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH TRUMP HAVING CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS AT MAR-DE-LARDO!?

Sorry for the screaming but this has nothing to do with fat Hitler having classified documents that he illegally removed from the White House.

[elias7]

6. Right, it's a shoot the messenger deal, like Fani Willis. Nothing to do with the evidence or the case

[bucolic_frolic]

7. She's trying to be a second Supreme Court

She is way out of line and should be removed from this case and whatever the judicial form of demoted is.

[Scrivener7]

9. So, I get that the fix is in with this creep. And it's clear she is so stupid that she couldn't

come up with this shit on her own, so she probably takes daily phone calls from some Federalist Society think tank.

But I still cannot get my head around the fact that the powers-that-be working behind the scenes chose the vile thing - that infantile, tiny, whiny worm of an excuse for a man - to invest all these resources in.

[Marthe48]

15. I think they picked him

because he has no morals, no scruples, no remorse, no humanity. And the lack of those moral qualities attract a surprisingly large number of sketchy Americans who would like to live their own lives with no morals, no scruples, no remorse, no humanity.

I am hoping that traitor is punished in courts to the point that the shine is off the apple, and that his fall puts the rwnj in disarray for years to come. I look at the scum the rwnj party hoists to the top and I don't see anyone who has the effect on large numbers of the criminal element among voters. It might be awhile before anyone as horrific as traitor comes along. Maybe have the time the country needs to weed out the other traitors in power, strengthen the vetting process, try to get people to understand that American government is probably the best government for the most people.

[NJCher]

19. Good summary

Very close to what I think, too.

[dameatball]

22. I hope you ar right, but it's gonna take a lot of weeding.

[Irish_Dem]

53. Trump is a very successful chaos agent. Very dangerous and destructive.

He has torn the country apart, damaged our institutions, created a vast following inside the US government.
He was worth every penny his minders paid for him.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Imagine what would have happened if the Dems had played these reindeer games with Ken Starr.

[yorkster]

12. Is it possible that 11th circuit could make a move

to help JS outflank this judge. She should be removed from this case, but she seems to have a counter for his every move, usually adding to the already-lengthy delays.

[BComplex]

42. And she is no doubt getting help from Leonard Leo's friends who got her the appointment to start with.

Just more tactics to try to destroy our legal system in the USA.

[niyad]

13. Where is covid when you need it ???

[jaxexpat]

14. Every remedy is destined to be appealed, ad infinitum, until........

the USSC looks at it personally.

It may be a minute.

[happy feet]

16. Disgusting!

A perversion of our Justice System and disregard for U.S. classified documents in the hands of a criminal.

[gab13by13]

18. It's time to call a spade a spade

Eh-Lean Cannon, most likely with help from some smart people, is either eating jack Smith's lunch or we need to revamp our legal system that is flawed to protect wealthy criminals.

[usaf-vet]

21. Maybe on point one. Yes on point two

[Lovie777]

20. As Spock would say...........................

this is illogical.

[gab13by13]

23. TSF's lawyers are filing frivolous motions/appeals

which Eh-Lean Cannon should be dismissing as being frivolous, instead she is scheduling hearings to resolve these frivolous motions which takes a lot of time. Having a judge that is abusing the justice system will be a hard fix unless some sort of time limits can be imposed on getting a case to trial. The American people have the right to a speedy trial but that isn't a law.

[Diraven]

24. Even if Cannon rules against them

Since they are raising Constitutional issues they'll get this appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile many more months of delay.

[AverageOldGuy]

25. Good. Fire Jack Smith, drop the charges.

Then -- Dept of Justice takes Smith's work, files the same charges -- IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA where a real judge will take the case, set a trial date, tell Trump's lawyers to GFY, pick a DC jury, and hang the MF -- excuse me, meant to say "and hang the clown who poses as a former President."

Double jeopardy does not attach to re-filing the charges in another venue because he has never come to trial, never been found guilty or not guilty.

DC Federal Court is no problem because Trump removed the classified material from the White House without authority to do so, which is in DC, so, DC is where the crime was committed.

Of course, all this depends on Sleepy Garland deciding to wakethefuckup and do the right thing.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. "Of course, all this depends on Sleepy Garland deciding to wakethefuckup"

Garland is irrelevant. I wish people would stop scape-goating Democratic appontees who are merely figureheads, and start putting the blame elsewhere.

Tell me, what OTHER case is RIGHT NOW, sitting in the District Court of D.C.?

HINT - remember this Judge?



She's WAITING for that fucking SCOTUS "immunity" ruling.

So I hope that people will see that it wouldn't matter WHEN or WHERE any of these cases were filed. The system would be gamed and sny type of case delayed because lazy asses back in 2010 didn't go out to vote or didn't want Hillary because she wasn't "perfect".

[claudette]

27. He will do

absolutely nothing.

[gab13by13]

32. Filing charges in DC is off the table

The big crimes were committed in Florida. IF the case was filed in DC TSF couldn't be charged under the espionage act and whatever he could be charged with would be crimes he committed while president which he then would claim executive immunity.

Smith had no choice but to file the charges in Florida.

[duckworth969]

47. I think there was a pending decision on a jurisdictional SC case

When Jack Smith was preparing to file the indictment.

Turns out he made the right call.

[SARose]

36. The criminal actions took place in Florida

Investigation moved to Miami in final weeks
The bulk of evidence against Trump in the documents case was taken in through a DC federal grand jury that continued to hear testimony months after the FBI seized hundreds of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022. But the Justice Department moved the investigation to a Miami grand jury in its final few weeks before charging Trump in South Florida’s federal court because much of Trump’s allegedly criminal actions took place at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Prosecutors have publicly disclosed little about the choice to move the case to Florida, though it has become a topic of discussion in the fights with the defense teams over secrecy, especially at a recent hearing before Cannon. “I can say that the investigation that was ongoing before the DC grand jury had – had adequate nexus to continue in Washington. I’m not prepared to comment on the date on which a decision to charge in Florida was made or what the internal deliberations were on that subject,” special counsel’s office prosecutor David Harbach told Cannon at a hearing last week.

Trump and his co-defendants’ attorneys have spent months trying to exploit that move, with the hopes that Cannon may think differently from Howell and Boasberg and want to scrutinize the prosecutors’ choices.

More

I read somewhere that he was still President when AF One left with the documents. The crime was then committed in Florida. Hair splitting, I know

[slightlv]

59. I'm with you.

Imo the crime initially happened in DC when T stole the files and then transferred them to FL. I know I'm confused on the legalities because this idea keeps getting pushed back at me on here but no one explains why the initial theft from the WH isn't important in filing a case. Yes. He held them unlawfully in FL, but that's not where the initial theft started. That was DC... so I still think it should be refiled there. Why and how is my logic so wrong?

[magicarpet]

28. Judge Cannon is eager to claw her way through the steaming Shitler dung pile

.... in search of a valid(?) reason to trash the entire case and make it disappear.

She can just taste that trDUMP appointment of her to the Supreme Court upon Smelvis' return trip to power.

[AllaN01Bear]

30. hem.

[bluestarone]

34. Everyone here KNOWS what her plan is. She will use EVERY avenue (legally provided) to STALL.

She was PLANTED here for a purpose. (my opinion)We can all bitch and moan, but there is shit that can be done about it. Only two things will stop her. 1) she has a natural death. 2) The Election ends with Joe elected. THEN, this trial will finally proceed. (not sure how she can further delay it) Just settle back and wait for her stupid fucking delays.

[Miguelito Loveless]

37. This is all part of the grand plan

But it doesn't end well, even if Biden wins by a landslide. Trump has two weapons at his disposal to steal the election and seize power:

1) Six votes on the SCOTUS
2) Bush v. Gore

Sue to throw out Dem votes in swing states. If the case is denied, appeal to the SCOTUS so they can hand the election to Trump as they did in 2000 handing it to Bush.

All nice and legal. All Trump's problems disappear. Ours then begin.

[bluestarone]

38. My quick reply is

I DO fear THIS Supreme Court. They are capable of anything. I just hope that if they interfere ILLEGALLY with this election I myself and MILLIONS others shut this country down. What other choice do we have? We CANNOT let them pull this off, especially with TFG as their choice. ALL means available to us need to be used, because Democracy is GONE, if this happens.

[Miguelito Loveless]

50. Agreed.

I really don't see any other option at this point. Our corporate/billionaire masters have corrupted the system from top to bottom, and are all in for fascism.

[BlueKota]

62. I hope if the SC acts illegally

not only the people, but the the officials we Democrats elected to represent us would not leave the public alone in the efforts to save the country.

[Miguelito Loveless]

35. There goes the case...

Jack Smith is just another Mueller/Fiztgerald. Everybody told me what a tough, no-nonsense professional he was, and how he would bust balls, and here is this Cannon clown running circles around him. Every time she showed her bias, people crowed about how THIS would be the thing that Jack Smith used to get her removed from the case.

Let's face it people, the DOJ is invested in protecting the institution of the president, even if that means handing it to a criminal who wants to be a dictator. Sure it will punish the small fry, poor people with little money or power. But when it comes to the rich, powerful, White men, members of the elite class, they are above the law.

Bitter?

Why yes, yes I am.

[gab13by13]

39. I wouldn't want anyone else besides Jack Smith in charge of prosecuting this case,

Smith's hands are tied by our justice system that is rigged to benefit the rich.

When TSF's lawyers file frivolous motions/appeals which Cannon could simply deny but instead she schedules hearings to resolve them, what is Smith supposed to do? Cannon is abusing the justice system but not doing so in a way to get her removed.

Now when she finally rules on Smith's request to gag TSF from lying about the FBI using lethal force on TSF, and if she denies Smith's request then she will be gone. Smith can't just go over her head willy nilly and think that the highly conservative 11th circuit will grant his appeal, it must be rock solid.

[Miguelito Loveless]

49. Hadn't she done just that?

Now when she finally rules on Smith's request to gag TSF from lying about the FBI using lethal force on TSF, and if she denies Smith's request then she will be gone.

If I had a dollar for every time a legal analyst here or on the news posted that Cannon "had crossed the line", and Smith would file to get her removed, I could retire comfortably in another country.

The DOJ's refusal to go after president's predates this affair, and goes right back to their "Nixon rule", made up out of whole cloth, that you can't indict a sitting president. Trump argued at his impeachment that he couldn't be convicted unless convicted of an actual crime in criminal court. Now that he faces such a penalty, he argues that he can only be punished with a conviction after impeachment. All while arguing that he immune from the law, that he can even assassinate political rivals, and the only option to punish him would be impeachment.

This argument is being seriously considered by the bought and paid for SCOTUS, who handed Trump a massive victory by simply agreeing to hear the case. I am very worried about the next election as I don't see how we can stop Trump from seizing power, even if he loses badly.

[gab13by13]

58. Sorry but you are wrong

Cannon did not deny Smith's request, she stated it wasn't filed properly leaving Smith the option to re-file.

My % predicting is up to 98.8%

[ColinC]

40. I think she might be trying to get that to happen quickly

It might be harder to dismiss when she is officially dealing with a convicted felon.

[bucolic_frolic]

41. Nice how the headline convicts rule of law as "unlawful" beforehand

Cannon is manufacturing this out of whole cloth

[Scrivener7]

55. You noticed that too. From our "liberal media," doncha know.

[Old Crank]

43. Too bad we the people

Can't petition to court to do their job and get this trial moving. We are all being hurt by the lack of justice provided.

[Dan]

44. Smith should ask to have her removed or dismiss this case

And refile later with additional charges and information in another venue.

[duckworth969]

46. Cannon being coached by Federalist Society

I’ll bet she’s had handlers from the start.

[Bayard]

48. Slooooooow Mo

Isn't there some way to get rid of this trump-woman stagnation?

[bullimiami]

51. This is truly beyond her authority. It's time.

[marble falls]

52. She's greasing her own skids.

[republianmushroom]

57. 40 months and counting (includes foot dragging)

[BlueKota]

61. Disgusting

She's basically announcing she has already decided she is going to do everything Trump is asking her to do. Why even pretend she will give Smith a fair chance to present his side.

It's so discouraging that nothing can be done to stop her.