Democrats' lawfare got a wet snap of the towel in the face when Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky questioned the very basis for the appointment of a special counsel to target President Trump in questioning Attorney General Merrick Garland at a congressional hearing.

Yesterday in the Judiciary committee, I asked AG Garland if Jack Smith’s Special Counsel office is even legal, and submitted former AG Meese’s amicus brief on that topic for the record. A few hours later, Judge Cannon agreed to allow that question to be debated in the courtroom. pic.twitter.com/TedmtbkmMP

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 5, 2024

He gripped onto Garland like a rat dog, shaking and shaking the political catspaw until Garland admitted that Joe Biden didn't appoint Smith, nor was he confirmed by the Senate in contrast to what Massie read out loud at the beginning of the exchange in the Massie video, called "the appointment clause of the Constitution," which described the critical importance of appointments being approved by the Senate. He also forced Garland to admit that that the special council's law had expired, which was his basis for arguing that the appointment was legal.

That left the Constitution as the law on special counsel appointments, the little carveout on special counsels was gone, and Garland was clearly not acting within the Constitution by appointing Jack Smith, who was not a public official confirmed by anyone when he got the job to Get Trump, which is another issue.

Former Attorney General Ed Meese of the Reagan era, a respected legal scholar now, put in his pithy two cents in a friend of the court brief describing what that meant:

From former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese’s amicus brief with SCOTUS arguing Garland’s appointment of Jack Smith is unconstitutional. pic.twitter.com/UHZ1zZCaDD

— LivePDDave 🇺🇸 (@LivePDDave1) June 5, 2024

Suffice to say, this was brutal and since then, Judge Aileen Cannon, who is handling Smith's classified documents case, has promised to review the appointment, which has been exposed by Massie as having no basis at all in existing law. He got no Senate approval and no presidential appointment, and holds no public office that has required those things, such as U.S. attorney, so he's just a dude.

Which tells us a lot about the lawlessness of this administration. It's telling that Smith has a rather spectacular disregard for the law, in his altered documents presented to the court over the state of President Trump's classified documents case, and in the Supreme Court's 8-0 overturning of Smith's prosecution and conviction of Gov. Robert McDonnell of Virginia, which had to have been pretty bad if all eight justices could swiftly agree that it was total garbage.

Now he's illegally in office with zero authority to prosecute and up until now, they've all just been going along with it. Well, one brave Republican stood up and said 'no.'

And now the odds are distinctly good that the entire house of cards will fall down.

This is what we want to see in our Republicans in Congress. Kudos to Massie for blowing the whole thing out of the water. He stands out.

Image: Twitter screen shot