The left-leaning legal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an amicus brief Wednesday with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon be removed from the classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump.
The case was dismissed in July by Cannon, who ruled Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Cannon argued the Constitution does not allow the attorney general to appoint a special counsel with the level of authority afforded to Smith, a private citizen, to prosecute Trump. Smith promptly filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit.
The amicus brief was joined by a retired federal judge and two legal scholars. The court has yet to rule on Smith’s appeal.
"A reasonable member of the public could conclude, as many have, that the dismissal was the culmination of Judge Cannon's many efforts to undermine and derail the prosecution of this case," the brief stated. "Before administering the coup de grâce that ended the case, Judge Cannon failed to resolve numerous pretrial motions and issues, leading many to suspect — rightly or wrongly — that she hoped the case would meet its doom in a second Trump administration."
In July 2023, Trump was indicted on 37 felony counts related to mishandling classified documents after he left office, including storing them at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. A little over a month later, a superseding indictment added charges against Trump, whose valet, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, are co-defendants. The FBI raided Trump’s estate in August 2022.
The controversial case has been full of legal maneuvers since its inception because of the unique nature of sharing evidence that is deemed to be classified and the manner in which Smith was appointed. Early in June, Trump’s legal team filed a motion seeking a full dismissal of the classified documents case on the grounds the Department of Justice mishandled evidence.
Trump's legal team previously attempted to have the case dismissed on the grounds that Trump was authorized under the Presidential Records Act to keep the documents and had the authority to designate them as personal files. In June, Cannon denied a previous request by Trump's legal team to dismiss some of the charges related to alleged obstruction and false statements.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, had previously postponed the trial indefinitely in May.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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