After helping grant Donald Trump for just about everything he did as president, Justice Clarence Thomas may also have provided federal Judge Aileen Cannon the excuse she needs to remove special counsel Jack Smith, RawStory reported.
Last month, the former president's legal team and outside right-wing attorneys were granted time by Cannon, a Trump appointee, to argue that Smith's appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. Smith, a private citizen, was charged by Attorney General Merrick Garland with investigating Trump's mishandling of classified documents.
Thomas, in his opinion on Trump's immunity case, wrote that he agreed with the special counsel's critics.
“If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution,” Thomas wrote, the Washington Post reported. “A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President.”
Because Smith should not have been appointed, the argument goes, Cannon should dismiss the case against Trump.
Former prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that this was a vapid argument.
"This is an issue that has been litigated many times, and each time, the courts of the United States have determined that special counsels like Jack Smith are constitutionally permitted, that their funding is constitutionally permitted [and] they still are inferior officers to the attorney general of the United States," Rosenberg said.
