Special Counsel Jack Smith Sunday used Donald Trump's own presidential appointee to undercut the former president's effort to get his criminal Espionage Act case dismissed.
Trump is currently facing allegations in federal court in Florida that he unlawfully stored and refused to return certain classified documents from his time as the president. Earlier in the day, Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing that case, denied Trump advisor Stephen Miller's request to argue against a gag order being considered in that particular case.
After that reporting, Josh Gerstein, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, noted that Smith filed a new brief fighting back against an attempt by Trump to get the case tossed in its entirety. As part of that bid, Trump's legal team is arguing that Smith wasn't legally appointed.
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To back up that point, Trump's team has argued that former Attorney General Bill Barr only appointed U.S. attorneys who had been confirmed by the Senate to serve as special counsel. Because Smith wasn't approved by the Senate, Trump's lawyers argue, he shouldn't have even been allowed to bring the case.
But Smith's new filing blows that argument out of the water by using Barr as an example, according to reporter Adam Klasfeld.
"Jack Smith just contradicted that in a supplemental briefing showing three of Barr's special counsel picks from 1991 and 1992," Klasfeld wrote Sunday.
Gerstein added that Smith's filing includes "additional statutory authority opposing Trump claim of flawed prosecutor appointment" as well as a "list of Bill Barr's appointed special counsels from his first go-round as AG in 1990s."
