Much to the frustration of special counsel Jack Smith's supporters, Judge Aileen Cannon set aside Friday, June 21 for a full hearing on arguments from Donald Trump's legal team that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had no business appointing a special counsel for the case without congressional approval.
CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig discussed the hearing with his colleague Jim Acosta that Friday morning, laying out the possible ramifications if Cannon agrees with Trump's attorneys and rules that Smith should not have been appointed as special counsel.
Honig told Acosta, "I do think that if Judge Cannon rules that he's improperly appointed, that would be a shocking ruling and might give him the basis to ask: (A) to reverse her, and (B) to remove her."
Honig laid out some reasons why Trump's arguments against Smith are flawed.
"They are arguing that when you have a special counsel like Jack Smith, that person is given, essentially, the same powers that normally, a U.S. attorney or the United States' attorney general holds to investigate, to subpoena, indict, try a case," Honig explained. "And the argument is that while U.S. attorneys and the AG have to be presidentially nominated, Senate-confirmed, the special counsel is just appointed…. by the AG — therefore, it's invalid."
Honig added, "The same argument was used to try to remove Robert Mueller unsuccessfully….. Judge Cannon is giving this issue a bit more of a hearing — a lot more of a hearing — than it's usually gotten. I think if she does say that Jack Smith was improperly appointed, she'll be reversed. I think it's clear that special counsel is lawful."
The CNN legal analyst added, however, that the "chances of" the Mar-a-Lago case going to trial before the November election are "close to zero."
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