Could Trump's classified documents case get thrown out?

The judge overseeing the trial, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, is considering motions to dismiss the case against former President Trump, in which he is alleged to have mishandled classified documents.

Specifically, the judge is weighing whether the appointment of U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith and the funding of his investigations is "unlawful."

While it isn’t exactly clear whether the indictment will be thrown out altogether, several individuals, including those who are arguing in favor of the former president, believe it should be.

Former Attorney General Ed Meese, who served under former President Reagan, filed an amicus brief in the case, in which he argues that Garland’s appointment of Smith as special counsel – a private citizen at the time – is in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.

Meese and company noted in the brief that Smith was appointed "to conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity [including former President Trump] violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021."

Garland previously defended his move during a hearing on Capitol Hill, arguing that "there are regulations under which the attorney general appoint special counsel. They have been in effect for 30 years, maybe longer, under both parties."

"The matter that you're talking about, about whether somebody can have an employee of the Justice Department serve as special counsel has been adjudicated," Garland argued, adding that he and other special counsel appointments that he and other attorneys general have made cite a regulation that points to a statute.

Meese, however, in his briefs filed in several points in the Trump cases, argued that "none of those statutes, nor any other statutory or constitutional provisions, remotely authorized the appointment by the Attorney General of a private citizen to receive extraordinary criminal law enforcement power under the title of Special Counsel."