- Judge Cannon heard challenges to Jack Smith’s funding in her Florida court
- She also will weigh Smith’s renewed request for a gag order on Trump
Judge Aileen Cannon heard more challenges to special counsel Jack Smith’s authority on Monday – this time asking if there was any limit to the congressional funding that supports his office.
The Trump-appointed judge made the comment at a hearing in her Fort Pierce, Florida courtroom as Trump’s lawyer argued that Smith’s funding is contrary to the rules governing congressional appropriations.
It is one of multiple challenges Trump’s team have challenged to the prosecutor leading the classified documents case against him. (Smith is also heading the January 6 case based in Washington, D.C. that is on hold while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s immunity claims.)
The judge’s comment came at a hearing where Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued that Smith’s funding has been against laws governing funding from the get-go.
Judge Aileen Cannon quizzed prosecutors and Donald Trump’s lawyers about Trump’s effort to force special counsel Jack Smith from the classified documents case
‘Is there any cap to the funding?’ Cannon asked him.
‘There is no check on the scope of what’s going on here,’ Bove responded.
She also called the amounts the Justice Department spent on special counsels ‘significant.’
Speaking for Smith’s office, assistant special counsel James Pearce said it is the ‘full commitment of the DOJ’ that the special counsel’s office has the funding to continue the prosecution.
Cannon asked Pearce to clarify if the budget for the case so far was $9 million.
‘But when it’s limitless, there is a separation of powers concern,’ Cannon said.
Pearce said DOJ had $1 billion at its disposal even if the current funding stream got changed.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers were back in court after facing off in Cannon’s courtroom on Friday, where she grilled defense lawyers and asked that they explain an ‘ominous’ argument after they challenged Smith’s appointment.
Bove said the law was being applied in a way to grant AG Merrick Garland ‘the power to appoint a shadow government.’
Cannon’s willingness to grant Trump lawyers time to argue their motions in open court, while also hearing ‘amicus’ pleas by outside parties, has prompted outside criticism that she is allowing Trump’s team to stall the case.
Critics accuse Cannon of repeatedly ruling in Trump’s favor and issuing rulings that show inexperience in a complex classified documents case
Trump’s team argued special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. On Monday they argued his funding violated appropriations statutes
David Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County and a Democrat, called it ‘mind-boggling.’
Cannon postponed a May trial date and has not scheduled a new one, raising the likelihood Trump won’t face trial in his classified documents case before the November elections.
He also will hear argumets in her courtroom Monday about Smith’s renewed request for a gag order, after Trump accused FBI agents of having a plan to assassinate him based on a boilerplate passage from a document listing preparations for a search on Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has called the gags on his speech in other cases unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a narrow gag order in the D.C. case, and New York Jude Juan Merchan imposed one in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.