Left: Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File); Center: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. Senate); Right: Special counsel Jack Smith (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Making good on a series of promises, special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday filed notice that his office was appealing the recent dismissal of the Mar-a-Lago indictment against Donald Trump.
“The United States of America hereby gives notice that it appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the order of the District Court entered on July 15, 2024,” the notice reads.
Smith has long warned U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that one wrong move would prompt a bid for the intervention of the appellate court that oversees federal judges in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
That move came on Monday, the first day of the Republican National Convention, when the Southern District of Florida slammed the brakes on the 45th president’s first federal indictment, cut the ignition, and tossed the special counsel out of the driver’s seat over a novel interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
A special counsel spokesperson mostly known for not speaking quickly bashed the ruling and promised that Smith would appeal.
“The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel,” Peter Carr said a statement. “The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order.”
The terse notice appeared on the Mar-a-Lago documents case docket late Wednesday afternoon. The formal appeal, however, has yet to be publicly docketed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Smith is likely to file his arguments in the coming days.
More Law&Crime coverage: The last straw: Judge Cannon’s obliteration of Jack Smith’s authority sets up 11th Circuit showdown after special counsel’s other threats to appeal
Cannon has been rebuked by the 11th Circuit before.
In 2022, a three-judge panel harshly overturned her appointment of a special master to oversee the documents culled from Trump’s Palm Beach estate during the raid in August of that year.
“This appeal requires us to consider whether the district court had jurisdiction to block the United States from using lawfully seized records in a criminal investigation. The answer is no,” the panel wrote. “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”
More Law&Crime coverage: Lawyer who drafted special counsel regulations predicts fate of Judge Cannon’s ‘deeply dangerous’ dismissal of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago indictment
Throughout the pendency of the case, Cannon was dogged by complaints that she allowed the co-defendants and their allies wide latitude to delay, file frivolous legal documents that push untenable legal theories, push back deadlines, and otherwise engage in dilatory tactics — with an eye toward making sure there is not a trial before the 2024 presidential election. That all came to fruition this week.
Smith, for his part, previously hinted he was prepared to seek review of Cannon’s rulings over a dispute about the Presidential Records Act — which eventually went the government’s way.
Law&Crime reached out to Carr and Trump’s attorneys for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
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