A group of legal and constitutional law experts including George Conway, Trevor Potter and Laurence Tribe have signed on to an amicus brief in support of the lawfulness of the appointment of the Special Counsel in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. In the filing, the 18 amici—which include former prosecutors, elected officials, other government officials, constitutional lawyers and State Democracy Defenders— urge the Eleventh Circuit to reverse Judge Cannon’s earlier decision by rejecting Trump’s contention that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith is unlawful and remove her from the case.
The brief explains that the Attorney General’s appointment of the Special Counsel was lawful under binding Supreme Court precedent holding that Congress authorized the appointment by statute, consistent with the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
The brief is available at this link and the full list of 18 amici is below.
Amici
Donald Ayer – Donald B. Ayer served as Deputy Attorney General in the George H.W. Bush Administration (1989-1990); Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the Reagan Administration (1986-1988); and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California in the Reagan Administration (1981-1986). He currently serves as a Board Member of the Society for the Rule of Law.
Louis Caldera – Louis E. Caldera served as United States Secretary of the Army, (1998-2001); Director of the White House Military Office (2009); President, University of New Mexico (2003- 2006); California State Assembly member (1992-1997); United States Army officer (1978- 1983); and serves currently as a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School.
Tom Coleman – Tom Coleman served as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-MO) (1976-1993) and as an assistant attorney general in Missouri (1969-1972).
George T. Conway III – George T. Conway III serves as Board President for the Society for the Rule of Law.
Stuart M. Gerson – Stuart M. Gerson served as Acting Attorney General (1993); Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division (1989–1993); and Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (1972–1975). He currently serves as Board Treasurer of the Society for the Rule of Law.
Philip Allen Lacovara – Philip Allen Lacovara served as Deputy Solicitor General in the Nixon Administration (1972-1973); Counsel to the Special Prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecutor’s Office (1973- 1974); and drafted the brief for the United States and presented argument in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974).
John McKay – John McKay served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington in the George W. Bush Administration (2001- 2007).
Trevor Potter – Trevor Potter served as Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (1994); Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, appointed by President George H.W. Bush (1991-1995); and an attorney in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice (1982-1984).
Alan Charles Raul – Alan Charles Raul served as Associate Counsel to the President (1986-1988); General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (1988-1989); General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1989-1993); Vice Chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (2006-2008); and currently serves as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and Board Secretary of the Society for the Rule of Law.
Abbe Smith – Abbe Smith is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, a member of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, and was previously the Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.
Fern Smith – Fern M. Smith served as Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, appointed by President Reagan (1988-2005); and Director of the Federal Judicial Center (1999-2003).
Larry Thompson – Larry Thompson served as the Deputy Attorney General (2001- 2003); Independent Counsel to the Department of Justice (1995-1998); United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia (1982-1986); and currently serves as the John A. Sibley Chair of Corporate and Business Law at University of Georgia Law School and Of Counsel at Finch McCranie, LLC.
Christine Todd Whitman – Christine Todd Whitman served as the Governor of New Jersey (1994-2001) and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the George W. Bush Administration (2001-2003).
Laurence H. Tribe – Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University and the former Director of the Office of Access to Justice in the U.S. Justice Department.
Olivia Troye – Olivia Troye served as Special Advisor, Homeland Security and Counterterrorism to Vice President Mike Pence (2018- 2020).
Stanley Twardy Jr. – Stanley A. Twardy, Jr. served as a United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut (1985-1991) and Chief of Staff to Connecticut Governor Lowell P. Weicker, Jr (1991-1993).
William Weld – William F. Weld served as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts (1981-1986); Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division (1986-1988); and Governor of Massachusetts (1991-1997).
State Democracy Defenders Action – State Democracy Defenders Action is a 501(c)(4) focused on defeating election sabotage and continuing the fight against autocratic risks to democracy.