Aileen Cannon Is 150 Years Behind The Times—Jack Smith

Judge Aileen Cannon is more than 150 years out of date in her interpretation of the law, special counsel Jack Smith has told an appellate court.

Cannon, a Trump appointee to Florida federal court, dismissed all charges against the former president in his classified documents case after claiming Smith was wrongfully appointed as special counsel.

Trump faced 40 federal charges in Cannon’s court over his alleged handling of sensitive materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He was also accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to retrieve them.

The Republican presidential nominee had pleaded not guilty and said the case is part of a political witch hunt.

Newsweek sought email comment from Trump’s attorney and from Cannon and Smith’s offices on Tuesday.

In her dismissal of the charges on July 15, Cannon noted that there is no constitutional backing for appointing Smith, a “private citizen,” as a Department of Justice special counsel in charge of all Donald Trump‘s federal indictments.

Smith is now appealing that decision to a federal appellate court in Florida and wrote in a filing on August 26 that Cannon’s “private citizen” remark was more than 150 years out of date.

“The district court compounded its error by fundamentally mischaracterizing the Special Counsel’s role. According to the district court: ‘Mr. Smith is a private citizen exercising the full power of a United States Attorney,'” the appellate submission from Smith’s office states.

“But he is not a private citizen: he is a sworn officer of the Department of Justice. There was a period in American history when ‘private citizens’ prosecuted some of the most consequential cases of the day, such as the prosecution of Jefferson Davis. But that has not been the practice for more than 150 years,” it states.

That referred to the appointment of private attorneys to prosecute Confederacy leader Jefferson Davis for treason.

Smith’s office also wrote that anyone in the Department of Justice could be labeled as a “private citizen” before they are appointed as a prosecutor.

“To the extent the district court used the term ‘private citizen’ to refer to someone who was not already a member of the Department of Justice before receiving his commission, that definition applies equally to every member of the Department,” Smith’s office wrote.

Cannon and Smith have long had a fractious relationship, as expressed through legal papers and the appellate brief continues that tradition.

Before Cannon dismissed the charges, she had accused Smith of disrespectful language in a legal brief and of wrongfully stating her position. He accused her of misinterpreting his words and objected to her long delay in the case while she considered a series of motions by Trump’s lawyers.

One of those motions eventually led to the dismissal of the case.