Jack Smith urges classified docs judge not to heed Justice Thomas's concurrence on special counsels

Special counsel Jack Smith urged  U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday, not to listen to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion in a recent court ruling that questioned the authority of Smith's office.

Cannon granted a delay in former President Donald Trump's classified documents case last week, after Trump's defense team asked permission to file documents to argue that Trump should be immune from prosecution in the case because of presidential immunity. 

The Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that presidential immunity existed over the "official acts" of a president, but not over unofficial ones, which is expected to give Trump some immunity in his legal cases. But Thomas also wrote a concurring opinion that questioned the constitutionality of a special counsel's office, which Trump's attorneys had cited in their request.

“That single-Justice concurrence...neither binds this Court nor provides a sound basis to deviate from the uniform conclusion of all courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel,” prosecutors in Smith's office wrote.

Thomas had claimed that Smith should not be able to move forward with his cases "if there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies," and that a regular citizen cannot prosecute anyone, "let alone a former president," per NBC News.

Smith signaled his approval for a delay in the classified documents case in the filing, according to CNN, and agreed that both cases need to file more briefings on the Supreme Court ruling and how it should be interpreted in the classified documents case. But no timeline for when the case will move forward has been disclosed.

The classified documents trial was expected to begin in May, but was postponed by Cannon after several matters in the case were unresolved by its initial start date. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he willfully retained national defense information after leaving office.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.