WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s office said Monday it would appeal a federal district court judge’s order dismissing the classified documents case against Donald Trump.

A spokesman for Smith, Peter Carr, said the Justice Department had authorized an appeal.

“The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a special counsel,” Carr said in a statement.

The case involved included dozens of felony counts accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified records from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. He had pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

The legal proceedings had long been stalled.

But the outright dismissal by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon was a stunning development.

In a statement on his social media platform, Trump said the dismissal “should be just the first step” and the three other cases still pending against him in other courts should also be thrown out.

One of those remaining cases involved his conviction in May in a state of New York case over a hush money situation amid the 2016 presidential campaign; sentencing in those charges was postponed after a Supreme Court opinion allowed broad immunity for former presidents.

Another case is pending, and will be complicated by the Supreme Court ruling, charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss.

And an election interference case filed in Atlanta has been delayed over revelations of a romantic relationship between the district attorney and the special prosecutor she hired for the case.

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