Special counsel Jack Smith asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to halt proceedings over President-elect Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida.
Noting Trump’s election, Smith’s Nov. 13 motion asked for the court to hold his appeal in abeyance and stay the deadline for his reply brief, which was due Nov. 15.
“The Government respectfully requests that the Court hold this appeal in abeyance—and stay the deadline for the Government’s reply brief, which is currently due on November 15, 2024—until December 2, 2024, to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy,” he said.
Smith has been pursuing an appeal over Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss his prosecution. She held this summer that his appointment violated the Constitution.
Smith’s motion was made roughly a week after Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. When asked about Trump’s criminal cases last week, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office pointed The Epoch Times to a 2000 memo in which the DOJ said prosecution of a sitting president violated the constitution.
“The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions,” it reads.
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