The arguments over the legality of special counsel Jack Smith's appointment kick off a three-day hearing that is set to continue next week and bring further delays to a criminal case that had been scheduled for trial last month.
Friday's arguments before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon won't involve discussion of the allegations against the former president. They'll center instead on decades-old regulations governing the appointment of Justice Department special counsels like Smith.
At issue in Friday's hearing is a Trump team claim that Smith was illegally appointed in November 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland because he was not first approved by Congress and because the special counsel office that he was assigned to lead was not also created by Congress.
On the agenda for next week are arguments over a limited gag order that prosecutors have requested to bar Trump from comments they claim could endanger the safety of FBI agents and other law enforcement officials involved in the case.
Trump's lawyers have said any speech restrictions would infringe on his free speech rights. Cannon initially rejected the request on technical grounds, saying prosecutors had not sufficiently conferred with defense lawyers before seeking the gag restrictions. But prosecutors subsequently renewed the request.
Another issue set to be discussed next week is a defense request to exclude from the case evidence seized by the FBI during the Mar-a-Lago search, and to dismiss the indictment because of evidence it includes that came from former members of Trump's defense team.
