'No jurisdiction': Watergate prosecutor says Judge Cannon cannot block Jack Smith's report
Far-right Trump-appointed district judge Aileen Cannon has no authority to block special counsel Jack Smith from releasing his report on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks told MSNBC's Joy Reid on Tuesday evening.
This comes as other legal experts have speculated Cannon herself knows such an order to block the report is invalid, and she just wants to run out the clock long enough for Trump to appoint officials at the Justice Department who can prevent it from being released.
"Let's talk about another story that's happening," said Reid. "Judge Cannon ... Donald Trump's favorite pet judge, she has blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on the criminal case. Essentially, Trump lawyers admitted there is really bad stuff in this report. She has blocked it. Does she have the authority to do that? This isn't her case anymore."
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"It is not her case," confirmed Wine-Banks. "She has no jurisdiction."
"This came out of nowhere," Wine-Banks continued. "She dismissed the case. It's now before the 11th Circuit. She said, wrongly, that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was not valid because of ridiculous things. It was a perfectly valid appointment. And so she dismissed the case on the grounds that he couldn't prosecute it. That is not proper, but in any event, she's given up her authority over the case. So why is she sticking her nose in this? It's because she wanted to do it. It's one more thing she can do to help President Trump."
"Her outcome-driven decisions are wrong and she doesn't have the power to do this," she concluded. "I hope the 11th Circuit will throw it out and that the Supreme Court, which will obviously get it from there, will also do the right thing and not allow this to happen."
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