Trump's lawyers seek dismissal of federal election case, call special counsel illegally appointed
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have told a federal judge that the election interference case against him should be dismissed, arguing that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed and that funding for his office should be cut off
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump told a federal judge Thursday that the election interference case against him should be dismissed, arguing that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed and that funding for his office should be cut off.
The argument mirrors the one that persuaded a Trump-appointed judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, to dismiss a separate case charging Trump with illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Smith's team has appealed the dismissal, calling Cannon's order contrary to decades of precedent.
The Washington case charges Trump with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when his supporters stormed the building.
The Trump argument faces an uphill battle in the election interference case, where the judge, Tanya Chutkan, last month said that she did not find Cannon's rationale “particularly persuasive.”
