Jack Smith Says Clarence Thomas’ Opinion Does Not Bind Judge Chutkan

U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has blasted former President Donald Trump‘s legal team for suggesting that his federal election subversion case should be dismissed due to an opinion from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The ex-president’s team filed a motion earlier this month seeking to throw out the case, based on a claim that Smith had been illegally assigned, pointing to Thomas questioning the legality of Smith’s appointment in a concurring opinion in Trump v. United States, which earlier this year granted Trump immunity for some actions while in office.

Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the former president’s federal classified documents case weeks after the Supreme Court decision, echoing Thomas by ruling that Smith’s appointment had been unconstitutional.

On Thursday, Smith filed a response to Trump’s motion, urging U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the election subversion case, to find that Trump’s motion had been filed after a deadline and that the opinions of neither Thomas nor Cannon should have any bearing on the case.

“The defendant implies that he had no basis to challenge the Special Counsel’s authority to prosecute the case until Justice Thomas authored a concurring opinion addressing the issue in Trump v. United States … and the district court overseeing his criminal prosecution in the Southern District of Florida dismissed the indictment after accepting his arguments,” Smith wrote.

“But neither that solo concurring opinion on a question that the parties did not brief or argue to the Supreme Court nor the unpersuasive out-of-circuit district court opinion binds this Court,” he added.

This is a developing story and will be updated as further information becomes available.