Jack Smith could win his appeal, but still have to deal with Judge Cannon

Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, urging the court to reverse U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the classified documents case. The Justice Department has a decent chance of prevailing, but reviving the case alone won’t solve a continuing challenge Smith would still face: Cannon herself. In her latest avant-garde move in the former president’s favor, the Trump appointee tossed the federal case last month on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed and funded. Noting the longtime acceptance of special counsels, the government wrote that Cannon’s “contrary view conflicts with an otherwise unbroken course of decisions, including by the Supreme Court, that the Attorney General has such authority, and it is at odds with widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government.” Reviving the case alone won’t solve a continuing challenge Smith would still face: Cannon herself. Recall that, before the former president was charged in this case, the 11th Circuit had already rebuked Cannon’s eccentrically Trump-friendly handling of litigation stemming from the Mar-a-Lago search warrant in 2022. She cited, among other things, Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the Trump immunity case, in which the Republican appointee went out of his way to question Smith’s appointment. That wasn’t the issue in the immunity case, so we don’t know how many other justices (if any) agree with Thomas. But it would seemingly make it more difficult to kick a judge off a case in part for reaching a decision citing a sitting Supreme Court justice’s reasoning, however flawed that reasoning is. Of course, if the high court ultimately upholds Cannon’s ruling if the case gets to the justices, that would moot any reassignment issue — as would a Trump presidential victory in November, which could lead to him eliminating the case entirely. That’s all to say that even if Smith succeeds in his current task (something we won’t know the answer to for a while), the case will remain on unsteady ground so long as Cannon presides. And given the great discretion afforded trial court judges, including during their handling of trials themselves, there’d be plenty more opportunity for mischief if the case goes back to her. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/jack-smith-judge-aileen-cannon-classified-documents-rcna168242