Prosecutors Appeal To Cancel Donald Trump's Secret Document Case

Donald Trump. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - US prosecutors on Wednesday formally filed an appeal against a federal judge's decision to cancel a criminal case filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding Donald Trump's illegal storage of classified documents after he ended his term as president.

Smith's office filed a notification indicating it would ask the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals to revive the case and reverse the decision of Florida-based US District Judge mind Cannon, who stated Smith had been illegally appointed by Attorney General total Garland.

Cannon, appointed judge by Trump in 2020, ruled Smith's appointment in 2022 violates the US Constitution, as Congress does not allow Attorney General Garland to appoint special advisers at the level of power and independence owned by Smith.

Cannon has cut ties with other federal court decisions over the decades that have enforced the attorney general's authority to empower special advisors to tackle politically sensitive investigations.

This practice has been used for decades by the president's government of both political parties. Special advisers have also investigated President Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Cannon's ruling overturned charges against Trump and other defendants Walt Nauta, Trump's personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager on the plantation of former president Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where the documents were found during an FBI search.

The decision is the latest in a series of legal victories for Trump. Previously, the US Supreme Court ruled Trump had broad immunity from lawsuits over the official action he took as president on July 1, a decision that had tied to another criminal case filed by Smith involving Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 general election.

Trump himself will run again in the 2024 US Presidential Election which will be held next November, challenging incumbent Joe Biden, to become a "rematch" for the 2020 US Presidential Election.

A Trump campaign spokesman reiterated Trump's previous call to cancel all four criminal cases against him given Cannon's decision.

Trump is accused of keeping sensitive national security documents illegally, including records related to US nuclear programs and potential military vulnerabilities, in Mar-a-Lago after leaving office in January 2021.

Trump and the other two defendants were also accused of obstructing an investigation into Trump's handling of the material. They pleaded not guilty. Apart from the two charges obtained by Smith, Trump faces criminal charges in two other cases.

He became the first former US president to be convicted of a crime, when a judge at a New York state court found him guilty in May on charges of a crime of silence money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to prevent sex scandals before the 2016 general election. He faces a sentence in September. Trump also faces state demands in Georgia over his attempts to drop his defeat in 2020.

Meanwhile, the remaining two criminal cases are expected not to be completed before the upcoming November election.