Trump and his House GOP allies go to war against special counsels

Lawyers for Donald Trump are hoping to convince a federal judge in Florida to throw out the classified documents case against him by arguing that the special prosecutor who brought the charges is unlawfully appointed and unconstitutionally funded.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are fighting a similar battle on behalf of the former president, with legislation and funding memos aimed at eliminating federal funds for what they’re calling “politicized prosecutions.”

Attorneys for the former president returned to a federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida on Monday for a second day of hearings on their long-shot motions to disqualify special counsel Jack Smith, part of Trump’s strategy to throw what are largely frivolous court filings at judges in the hopes of at least delaying his trials until after Election Day.

On Friday, Trump’s lawyers argued that Smith was illegally appointed to the role, though the Trump-appointed judge presiding over the case appeared mostly skeptical, pointing to “well-defined” regulations surrounding special counsel appointments and their roles.

Monday’s hearing centered around Trump’s arguments that the way the special counsel’s office is funded violates the Constitution’s appropriations clause. Defense attorney Emil Bove argued there is no “valid appropriations that validates what’s going on” in the special counsel’s case, and that the office should not have access to “permanent, indefinite appropriations” to fund itself.

In a filing earlier this year, Trump’s attorneys argued that President Joe Biden, through the Department of Justice, “is paying for this politically motivated prosecution of Biden’s chief political rival ‘off the books,’ without accountability or authorization.”

Prosecutors