US_ Special counsel Jack Smith wasn’t lawfully appointed, can’t prosecute Trump, legal scholars say

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Special counsel Jack Smith wasn’t lawfully appointed, can’t prosecute Trump, legal scholars say

VIDEO

By Alex Swoyer - The Washington Times - Friday, January 12, 2024


President Reagan’s attorney general and two law professors who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia are challenging special counsel Jack Smith’s authority to prosecute former President Donald Trump, saying a private citizen can’t bring criminal charges.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese and law professors Steven Calabresi and Gary Lawson said in a 25-page filing to the Supreme Court that Attorney General Merrick Garland had no constitutional or statuary authority to appoint Mr. Smith to conduct the high-level criminal investigation of Mr. Trump because he was a private citizen and not confirmed by the Senate.

Mr. Smith worked as a U.S. attorney but was living in the Netherlands at the time of his appointment in November 2022, according to reports.

The filing says a lawfully appointed special counsel would have had to be selected by the president, confirmed by the Senate and serve in the Justice Department. Lawful special counsel appointments in the past included Patrick Fitzgerald, a U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Rod Rosenstein, John Huber and John Durham.

“What federal statutes and the Constitution do not allow, however, is for the Attorney General to appoint a private citizen, who has never been confirmed by the Senate, as a substitute United States Attorney under the title ‘Special Counsel.’ That is what happened on November 18, 2022. That appointment was unlawful, as are all the legal actions that have flowed from it,” they wrote.

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READ MORE: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jan/12/legal-scholars-say-special-counsel-jack-smith-wasn/

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