Trump lawyers move to dismiss Jack Smith 2020 election charges, claim he was unlawfully appointed

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Judge Cannon rules Jack Smith's appointment 'unlawful' as he wasn't Senate confirmed

Fox News' David Spunt provides updates on Judge Aileen Cannon's decision to dismiss Trump's classified documents case over the unlawful appointment of Jack Smith. 'Outnumbered' panelists react.

FIRST ON FOX - Lawyers for former President Trump filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss charges related to the 2020 election brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith, claiming he was unlawfully appointed, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Trump lawyers were successful in arguing that Smith was unlawfully appointed in his separate case against the former president related to classified records. 

JUDGE DISMISSES TRUMP'S FLORIDA CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE

U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida Aileen Cannon in July granted Trump's request to dismiss the classified records charges, to which he pleaded not guilty, due to the "unlawful appointment and funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith." 

Trump attorneys on Thursday filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Tanya Chutkan is presiding over the case.

Donald Trump and Jack Smith  (Getty Images)

"President Donald J. Trump respectfully requests leave to file this proposed motion to dismiss the Superseding Indictment and for injunctive relief—which is timely and, alternatively, supported by good cause—based on violations of the Constitution’s Appointments and Appropriations Clauses," the filing states. 

The Appointments Clause says, "Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments." Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate.

"The proposed motion establishes that this unjust case was dead on arrival— unconstitutional even before its inception," the Trump filing states.

Trump lawyers argued that in November 2022, Attorney General Merick Garland "violated the Appointments Clause by naming private-citizen Smith to target President Trump, while President Trump was campaigning to take back the Oval Office from the Attorney General’s boss, without a statutory basis for doing so." 

"Garland did so following improper public urging from President Biden to target President Trump, as reported at the time in 2022, and repeated recently by President Biden through his inappropriate instruction to ‘lock him up’ while Smith presses forward with the case unlawfully as the Presidential election rapidly approaches," the filing states. 

Trump lawyers were referring to comments made by President Biden this week, in which he said: "we got to lock him up," Biden said of Trump. However, the president quickly added, "Politically lock him up, lock him out. That’s what we have to do." 

But Trump lawyers argued that "everything that Smith did since Attorney General Garland’s appointment, as President Trump continued his leading campaign against President Biden and then Vice President Harris, was unlawful and unconstitutional." 

Trump attorneys argued that Smith violated the Appropriations Clause, saying he relied on an appropriation "that does not apply in order to take more than $20 million from taxpayers—in addition to Smith improperly relying on more than $16 million in additional funds from other unspecified ‘DOJ components’—for use in wrongfully targeting President Trump and his allies during the height of the campaign season." 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.