Gov Uscourts FLSD 648652 326 0
Gov Uscourts FLSD 648652 326 0
Gov Uscourts FLSD 648652 326 0
DONALD J. TRUMP,
WALTINE NAUTA, and
CARLOS DE OLIVEIRA,
Defendants.
_____________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1
DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................1
I. The Creation Of The Special Counsel Office Violated The Appointments Clause ........... 1
A. Relevant Facts ................................................................................................................. 1
B. The Smith Appointment Violates The Appointments Clause......................................... 2
C. The DOJ Statutes Do Not Vest The Attorney General With Appointment Authority ... 3
D. Nixon Does Not Resolve The Legality Of Smith’s Appointment................................... 6
II. The Funding Of Smith’s Investigation Violates The Appropriations Clause ..................... 7
A. Background ..................................................................................................................... 8
1. The Independent Counsel Act ................................................................................... 8
2. Congress Let The Independent Counsel Act Expire ................................................. 8
3. The Reno Regulations ............................................................................................. 10
B. The Permanent Appropriation Is Not Available To The Special Counsel’s Office ..... 10
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................13
i
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INTRODUCTION
President Donald J. Trump respectfully submits this motion to dismiss the Superseding
Indictment based on the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith, in violation of the
DISCUSSION
I. The Creation Of The Special Counsel Office Violated The Appointments Clause
The Appointments Clause does not permit the Attorney General to appoint, without Senate
confirmation, a private citizen and like-minded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of
the United States. As such, Jack Smith lacks the authority to prosecute this action. “[T]hat is a
serious problem for the rule of law—whatever one may think of former President Trump or the
conduct Smith challenges in the underlying case.” 2 This is an issue of first impression in the
A. Relevant Facts
On November 18, 2022, Attorney General Garland appointed Smith as a “Special Counsel”
with purported authority to “prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation” into President
Trump. DOJ Order No. 5559-2022 at 2. Soon after his appointment, the DOJ launched a webpage
1
President Trump reserves the right to supplement this motion and file any other motions based
on discovery provided as a result of the motions to compel. See ECF No. 314.
2
Brief of Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, Law Professors Steven Calabresi and Gary
Lawson, and Citizens United as Amici Curiae in Support of Applicant at 1, Trump v. United States,
Supreme Court of the United States, No. 23A745 (Feb. 20, 2024); see also Brief of Former
Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Law Professors Steven G. Calabresi and Gary S. Lawson
as Amici Curiae Supporting Neither Party at 2, United States v. Trump, No. 23-3228 (D.C. Cir.
2023) (ECF No. 2033813) (“Jack Smith does not have authority to conduct the underlying
prosecution. Those actions can be taken only by persons properly appointed as federal officers to
properly created federal offices. Neither Smith nor the position of Special Counsel under which
he purportedly acts meets those criteria.”).
1
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for Smith, similar to webpages DOJ maintains for different components of the Department, that
summarize the financial activity of the “Special Counsel’s Office (SCO) of John L. Smith,” further
providing that, “[a]s an organization within the Department of Justice, the SCO is required to
comply with the rules, regulations, procedures, practices, and policies of the Department of
Justice.” 4
The Constitution vests all “executive Power” in a president, who must “take Care that the
Laws be faithfully executed.” U.S. CONST. art. II, § 1, cl. 1, § 3. The Appointments Clause requires
that all federal offices “not . . . otherwise provided for” in the Constitution—every office other
than the president—must be “established by Law,” i.e., by Congress. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 2, cl.
2. The Appointments Clause requires that any appointment be with the “Advice and Consent of
the Senate.” Id. It follows, then, that to properly establish a federal office, Congress must enact
it.
The Necessary and Proper Clause authorizes Congress to create federal offices to exercise
such power. See U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 18 (“The Congress shall have Power . . . To make all
Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and
all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any
Department or Officer thereof.”). There is, however, no statute establishing the Office of Special
3
See DOJ, About: Special Counsel Jack Smith, https://www.justice.gov/sco-smith.
4
U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Special Counsel’s Office – Smith Statement of Expenditures, available at
https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-
07/Special%20Counsel%27s%20Office%20of%20John%20L.%20Smith%20-
%20Statement%20of%20Expenditures%20-
%20November%2018%202022%20to%20March%2031%202023_FINAL_7.5.23%20v1.pdf
2
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Counsel. As a result, because neither the Constitution nor Congress have created the office of the
“Special Counsel,” Smith’s appointment is invalid and any prosecutorial power he seeks to wield
is ultra vires.
C. The DOJ Statutes Do Not Vest The Attorney General With Appointment
Authority
Jack Smith is not an “Officer” under the statutes cited by Attorney General Garland. At
best, he is an employee. See 5 U.S.C. § 3101 (“Each Executive agency, military department, and
the government of the District of Columbia may employ such number of employees of the various
classes recognized by chapter 51 of this title as Congress may appropriate for from year to year.”
(emphasis added)).
Reno pursuant to the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-521. See Office of Special
Counsel, 64 Fed. Reg. 37,038 (July 9, 1999) (codified at 28 C.F.R. §§ 600.1-600.10) (the “Reno
Regulations”). Under the Reno Regulations, the Attorney General may “appoint an outside Special
Counsel to assume responsibility for [a] matter.” 28 C.F.R. § 600.1. However, the Reno
Regulations are not the type of “law” that can “establish[]” a federal office because the
Appointments Clause dictates that only Congress can create a federal office. See U.S. CONST. art.
II, § 2, cl. 2.
The Reno Regulations cite as authority 5 U.S.C. § 301 and 28 U.S.C. §§ 509, 510, 515-19.
The order appointing Smith cites each of these statutes except § 301. However, none of these
statutes do not provide authority for a “Special Counsel.” Section 301 is a general provision for
the issuance of regulations by the head of any Executive department, and the provision does not
create an office or authorize the creation of an office. Reading § 301 as general authorization for
appointment of officers renders superfluous the entirety of the numerous more specific provisions
3
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for appointment of officers throughout the United States Code, which are not cited in the Reno
Regulations. See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. §§ 503-507A, 532, 541-42, 561, 581-82, 599A. Sections 509
and 510 of Title 28 relate to the authority among DOJ officers or employees and the numerous
agencies that fall under DOJ’s ambit, but these provisions do not authorize the appointment of new
Sections 515 through 519 of Title 28 do not authorize the creation of a Special Counsel.
Section 515(a) concerns the powers of an “officer” or “any attorney specially appointed by the
Attorney General under law,” meaning lawfully appointed pursuant to other statutory provisions.
Thus, § 515(a) is not a grant of power to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel, but a mere
jurisdictional allocation for duly appointed officers and specially appointed attorneys previously
authorized by Congress in some other provision. For example, pursuant to § 515(a), in 2003, the
Attorney General appointed Patrick Fitzgerald, the Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney for the
Northern District of Illinois pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 541, to serve as a Special Counsel in the
Relatedly, 28 U.S.C. § 515(b) is not a grant of authority to retain or to hire new officers.
The statute is limited to attorneys “retained under authority” of DOJ. Id. Such an attorney must
be commissioned as a “special assistant to the Attorney General or special attorney,” not a “Special
Counsel.” Thus, §§ 515(a) and 515(b) assume that attorneys will be “specially appointed by the
Attorney General under law” and “specially retained under the authority of the Department of
Justice.” But these provisions do not confer authority to create an office or appoint officers.
Likewise, 28 U.S.C. §§ 516-19 concern the internal allocation of authority among existing
DOJ personnel, and these sections do not confer authority to create an office or appoint officers.
Section 516 reserves the “conduct of litigation” involving the United States to the DOJ. Section
4
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517 relates to the powers of the Solicitor General in cases involving the “interests of the United
States.” Section 518 addresses the Attorney General’s power to argue cases in court. Finally,
§ 519 merely confers power on the Attorney General to supervise litigation involving the
government and direct government attorneys, such as “special attorneys appointed under section
543.” 5 Section 543 does not allow the Special Counsel appointments that the Reno Regulations
sought to authorize because the provision is limited to the appointment of attorneys to “assist
United States attorneys,” such as “qualified tribal prosecutors.” 28 U.S.C. § 543. Attorney
General Garland did not cite § 543 in Order No. 5559-2022, and Smith was not appointed to “assist
[a] United States attorney” under § 543. Rather, Smith claims to have the authority to exercise
DOJ’s plenary investigative and prosecutorial power without the direction or supervision of a
Attorney General Garland also cited 28 U.S.C. § 533, which is part of Chapter 33, titled
“Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Because the introductory language of § 533 relates to the
appointment of “officials,” rather than Article II “Officers of the United States,” § 533(1) is not a
general authorization to the Attorney General to create an office or appoint an Officer. “Officers”
is a constitutional term of art under the Appointments Clause; Article II, Section 1; and Article II,
Section 4, which allows for the impeachment and removal of “all civil Officers of the United States
. . . .” Congress could impeach the Deputy Attorney General or the FBI Director, but no one
5
Section 519 refers to the Attorney General’s supervisory authority over “special attorneys
appointed under section 543.” Section 543, in turn, provides the Attorney General authority to
“appoint attorneys to assist United States attorneys when the public interest so requires.” 28
U.S.C. § 543 (emphasis added). Section 543 does not authorize the appointment of a Special
Counsel, and has instead been relied upon to appoint “Special Assistant United States Attorneys.”
See United States v. Navarro, 160 F.3d 1254, 1257 (9th Cir. 1998).
5
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contemplates Congress impeaching FBI “officials.” Rather, § 533 “officials” must be subject to
Finally, reading § 533 to instill virtually limitless inferior Officer appointment power in
the Attorney General would render Title 28’s appointment structure a nullity. See, e.g., § 504
(creating Deputy Attorney General); § 505 (creating Solicitor General); § 506 (creating Assistant
Attorneys General); § 541 (creating United States Attorneys). Title 28 is divided into chapters
relating to the Attorney General; the FBI (which includes § 533); U.S. Attorneys; the Marshals
Service; U.S. Trustees; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the now
defunct independent counsel. In that context, it does not stand to reason that Congress authorized
the Attorney General to appoint a Special Counsel in the chapter relating to the FBI.
The Supreme Court’s dicta in United States v. Nixon, does not save Jack Smith. In
reasoning relating to the distinct issue of justiciability, the Nixon Court noted:
Under the authority of Art. II, s 2, Congress has vested in the Attorney General the power
to appoint subordinate officers to assist him in the discharge of his duties. 28 U.S.C. §§
509, 510, 515, 533. Acting pursuant to those statutes, the Attorney General has delegated
the authority to represent the United States in these particular matters to a Special
Prosecutor with unique authority and tenure
418 U.S. 683, 694 (1974). Neither Nixon nor the case that purported to follow it, In re Grand Jury
Investigation, 916 F.3d 1047, 1053 (D.C. Cir. 2019), engaged in a textual analysis of §§ 509, 510,
515, and 533 to determine if those sections do, in fact, authorize the appointment of a “Special
Prosecutor.”
The Nixon Court was focused on whether the president’s assertion of executive immunity
could be challenged in any judicial process. 418 U.S. at 706. Nixon was also decided prior to “the
rebirth of the Appointments Clause in 1976” pursuant to Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).
Steven G. Calabresi & Gary Lawson, Why Robert Mueller’s Appointment as Special Counsel Was
6
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Unlawful, 95 Notre Dame L. Rev. 87, 124 (2019) (citing, as other examples, Morrison v. Olson,
487 U.S. 654 (1988) and Lucia v. SEC, 138 S. Ct. 2044 (2018)). Thus, the Nixon Court’s barebones
418 U.S. at 694; see also In re Grand Jury Investigation, 916 F.3d at 1052 (characterizing Special
Counsel Mueller as an “inferior officer”). However, Attorney General Garland declared that
Smith’s appointment was intended to promote independence, and the Special Counsel’s Office has
insisted that “coordination with the Biden Administration” is “non-existent.” ECF No. 191 at 6,
United States v. Trump, No. 23 Cr. 257 (D.D.C. Dec. 27, 2023). If Smith is a subordinate officer
as Nixon suggests, then these public assertions are false because Smith serves at the pleasure of
the Attorney General and President Biden, who is exercising Article II authority to oversee the
prosecution of his political rival and leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
For all of these reasons, Smith’s position was not “established by Law” under the
Appointments Clause. The authority he attempts to employ as Special Counsel far exceeds the
power exercisable by a non-superior officer, authority that Congress has not cloaked him with.
See Lucia, 138 S. Ct. at 2051-52. Therefore, any actions taken by Smith are ultra vires and the
President Biden’s DOJ is paying for this politically motivated prosecution of Biden’s chief
political rival “off the books,” without accountability or authorization. Rather than funding the
Special Counsel’s Office through the ordinary budget process, Jack Smith is drawing on a
permanent indefinite appropriation that, by its terms and under the Reno Regulations, is not
available to Special Counsel. Thus, Smith’s funding violates the Appropriations Clause. Like the
7
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Appointments Clause defect, the Appropriations Clause violation is an issue of first impression in
A. Background
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 established a procedure whereby, at the Attorney
General’s request, a special panel of three federal judges would both appoint a prosecutor and
define the scope of the investigation. The law was repeatedly reauthorized and later renamed the
Independent Counsel Act. In 1983, Congress renamed the “Special Prosecutor” as “Independent
Counsel.” Ethics in Government Act Amendments of 1982, Pub. L. No. 97-409, 96 Stat. 2039.
Appropriations Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-202, § 101(a), 101 Stat. 1329, 1329-9. A “permanent
indefinite appropriation” is one that “both (1) remains available for specified purposes, with no
fiscal-year limitations and with no need for additional congressional action to authorize its use;
and (2) is for an unspecified amount of money.” U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFF., Office of
Agency Expenses Incident to Back Pay Awards, B-332003.1 n.1 (Oct. 5, 2022). A Committee
report relating to the 1987 reauthorization underscored that the intent of Congress “has always
been that the independent counsel would be completely independent of the Department of Justice.”
In 1999, Congress let the Independent Counsel Act expire due in large part to bipartisan
concern that unlimited budgets were leading to political witch hunts. At a House Judiciary
8
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Committee hearing, then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder explained that resource constraints
Independent counsel are largely insulated from any meaningful budget process, competing
public duties, time limits, accountability to superiors and identification with the traditional
long-term interests of the Department of Justice. This insulation contributes greatly to the
independence of these prosecutors, but it also eliminates the incentive to show restraint in
the exercise of prosecutorial power. Such restraint, usually referred to as prosecutorial
discretion, is essential to our system of justice, and is a prosecutorial hallmark . . . . All of
these provide an impetus to investigate the most trivial matter to an unwarranted extreme,
and to resolve all doubt against the subjects of an investigation.
Independent Counsel Hearing at 70-71 (emphasis added). 6 The point was echoed by Senators
Mitch McConnell and Chris Dodd, party leaders on opposite sides of the aisle. 7
To address this concern, the DOJ recommended letting the Independent Counsel Act expire
and instead using lawyers appointed within DOJ’s statutory framework. U.S. Senator Tammy
Baldwin, then a House Judiciary Committee member, pressed Holder on what “safeguards” the
American people would then have that “expenditures will be appropriately limited.” Independent
[I]f you had special prosecutors who operated within the framework … of the Justice
Department, you would not have the kinds of concerns that some people have expressed
about expenditures. They would be a part of the Department, part of the Department's
budget.
6
Reauthorization of the Independent Counsel Statute, Pt. I, Hearings Before the Subcomm. on
Commercial and Admin. Law of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 106th Cong. 102 (1999) (the
“Independent Counsel Hearing”).
7
Such agreement was documented in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal: “The current
independent counsel law is opposed by nearly every former living attorney general . . . . The law
gives virtually unchecked power, virtually unlimited budgets and completely distorted incentives-
-all to one man or woman whose sole job is to investigate a public official.” Mitch McConnell &
Christopher Dodd, No More Independent Counsels, WALL ST. J. (Feb. 23, 1999),
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB919720839100844500.
9
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Id. at 102. Congress allowed the statute to lapse, and DOJ issued the Reno Regulations soon
thereafter. But DOJ never delivered on Mr. Holder’s assurance. Special Counsel expenditures
have not become part of the Department’s budget and, as here, continue to be funded through the
The day after the Independent Counsel Act expired, the Reno Regulations took effect. 64
Fed. Reg. 37038 (July 9, 1999). The most significant change, according to the Congressional
Research Service, is the “overall degree of ultimate control and authority that the Attorney General
Independent Counsel procedures, and former regulations such as those authorizing the Watergate
Special Prosecutors.” CRS Report at 5. 8 For example, under the Independent Counsel Act, the
prosecutor was selected by a three-judge panel from a specially created division within the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. 28 U.S.C. § 593. Pursuant to the Reno Regulations, Special
Counsels are selected by and owe their jobs to the Attorney General and the Attorney General’s
Jack Smith’s expenditures have not become part of DOJ’s budget. Instead, the Biden
Administration is funding the Special Counsel’s Office via the permanent indefinite appropriation
that is only available to “independent counsel” appointed pursuant to the Independent Counsel Act
or “other law.” The Hon. Ted Stevens Chairman Comm. on Appropriations, 2004 WL 2213560,
8
CRS, RL31246, Independent Counsel Law Expiration and the Appointment of “Special
Counsels” (Jan. 15, 2002) (the “CRS Report”).
10
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at *3 (Sept. 30, 2004) (emphasis added). 9 Smith is not an independent counsel, but the nearly $13
million that Smith spent in Fiscal Year 2023—with no accountability—is more than 10% of the
annual budgets of DOJ’s Tax and Environment and Natural Resources Divisions.
The Reno Regulations stripped prosecutorial independence that had previously been
conferred by the Independent Counsel Act. See, e.g., 28 C.F.R. § 600.7 (presuming that Special
Counsel are subject to “review and approval procedures by the designated Departmental
component”). The court in United States v. Stone ignored the significance of the Reno Regulations
and relied on an atextual interpretation of 28 U.S.C. § 515 to reason that the provision served as
an independent basis for Mueller’s appointment and “other law” for purposes of his access to the
indefinite appropriation. 394 F. Supp. 3d 1, 19-20 (D.D.C. 2019). For the reasons stated above in
Part I, § 515 cannot sustain the weight the Stone court placed upon it. Specifically, § 515(a) refers
to attorneys “appointed by the Attorney General under law,” which requires an independent
statutory basis for the appointment. There was no such basis supporting Mueller’s activities, and
there is none supporting Jack Smith. Therefore, the Court should reject the analysis in Stone.
The significance of the Reno Regulations is illustrated by the GAO analysis relating to
Patrick Fitzgerald. In 2004, DOJ justified Fitzgerald’s access to the indefinite appropriation in
connection with his appointment as Special Counsel by arguing that Fitzgerald was “express[ly]
exclu[ded]” from the Reno Regulations. See The Hon. Ted Stevens Chairman Comm. on
Appropriations, 2004 WL 2213560, at *3 (Sept. 30, 2004). The GAO focused on the “indicia of
independence” surrounding Fitzgerald, and concluded that the “independence conferred by the
9
See DOJ Appropriations Act, 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-202 § 108, 101 Stat. 1329 (Dec. 22, 1987)
(“That a permanent indefinite appropriation is established within the Department of Justice to pay
all necessary expenses of investigations and prosecutions by independent counsel appointed
pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. 591 et seq. or other law . . . .” (emphasis added)).
11
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delegation of authority to Special Counsel Fitzgerald from the Department of Justice is consistent
with a fair reading of the independence required of an ‘independent counsel’ appointed under
‘other law.’” Id at *3, *5. Unlike Fitzgerald (a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney), the terms of
Attorney General Garland’s Order make Jack Smith (an outside attorney who used to work at DOJ)
subject to the Reno Regulations. Thus, pursuant to the Order, Smith is not “independent.”
CFPB v. All Am. Check Cashing, Inc., 33 F.4th 218, 242 (5th Cir. 2022) (Jones, J., concurring);
see also United States v. McIntosh, 833 F.3d 1163, 1175 (9th Cir. 2016) (“[I]f DOJ were spending
money in violation of § 542, it would be drawing funds from the Treasury without authorization
by statute and thus violating the Appropriations Clause. That Clause constitutes a separation-of-
powers limitation that Appellants can invoke to challenge their prosecutions.”). Because Smith
lacks sufficient independence, he should not be permitted to access the permanent indefinite
12
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CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, President Trump respectfully submits that the Court should
dismiss the Superseding Indictment pursuant to the Appointments Clause and the Appropriations
Clause.
13
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I, Christopher M. Kise, certify that on February 22, 2024, I filed the foregoing document
and served it on the Special Counsel’s Office via email, or CM/ECF to the extent possible, as
required by the Court’s February 20, 2024 Order. ECF No. 320.