Special counsel Jack Smith's latest appeal just gave the classified documents case against Donald Trump "a new legal heartbeat," according to one former U.S. attorney.
Smith filed an appeal Monday in response to Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of the case last month, in which Trump faced dozens of charges related to his removal of classified documents from the White House at the end of his term to Mar-a-Lago.
"Judge Cannon had no business dismissing Trump's case, had no legal authority to dismiss Donald Trump's case, had no precedent supporting a dismissal of Donald Trump's case," attorney and former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner criticized in a video posted to his YouTube channel Monday.
Kirschner said through the filing, Smith "took the paddles of life and applied them to a case – to a prosecution that Aileen Cannon tried to kill. And he yelled out, clear... and I think maybe we have a legal heartbeat."
Kirschner predicted Smith will be successful in his filing with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, citing years-long precedent.
"So to say Judge Cannon is the outlier – she's on an island here because there is no legal support. There's no precedent supporting what she did. She did an enormous, lawless favor for Donald Trump," he said.
"When the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Judge Cannon's dismissal, what will Donald Trump do? He'll appeal to his Supreme Court. You know, his radical, right wing, 6-block of justices up there who seem to be willing to depart from the text of the Constitution – heck, just throw out entire sections of the Constitution – to continue to do favors for Donald Trump," continued Kirschner, adding that he's unsure if the Supreme Court will ultimately take up the case.
"Why? Because all of the precedent suggests that Judge Cannon was wrong and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will be right if they reverse her."
But, even if Smith wins his appeal to revive the classified documents case against Trump, Judge Cannon would still likely oversee the legal matter, former prosecutor Jordan Rubin speculated, according to MSNBC.
