Judge Aileen Cannon and the Trump trial are not moving quickly

9 hours ago

By Sam Cabral, BBC News, Washington

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Critics say Judge Aileen Cannon indulged Trump's delaying tactics

The Florida district judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents trial is facing scrutiny over a series of controversial decisions related to the case.

Judge Aileen Cannon has already been criticized for delaying the trial, all but guaranteeing it will not take place before the November election. If Trump wins and takes back the White House, he could order the Justice Department to drop the case.

Today, she faces criticism for taking into account arguments that could derail the trial itself.

Trump argued that special counsel Jack Smith, who filed charges against him in Florida and Washington, was illegally appointed.

Critics say Judge Cannon, an inexperienced Trump appointee, issued rulings favorable to him and took too long to resolve pretrial issues.

Who is Judge Cannon?

Aileen Cannon has served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida since 2020.

The classified documents case was randomly assigned to him last year, from a group of four available judges.

Judge Cannon, 43, was born in Colombia, the daughter of a Cuban exile and raised in Miami.

She has had ties to the conservative Federalist Society since law school and previously worked for a conservative appeals court judge.

The Trump case is by far the most high-profile to date.

She was working on appellate cases as an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida when she received a lifetime appointment to the federal bench from Trump in 2020.

A New York Times review of the cases she has since overseen found that only four of them went to trial, all brief and basic legal proceedings.

It was reported this week that shortly after she withdrew the Trump dossier last June, two of her most senior colleagues urged her to step down and rely on someone else.

They recommended a judge based closer to Miami, whose court has secure facilities that could hold sensitive records. Miami is also where the grand jury that indicted Trump sat.

Judge Cannon works alone in Fort Pierce, two hours north of Miami, and the federal courthouse now includes a secure facility built at taxpayer expense.

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Walt Nauta (left) is one of Trump's two co-defendants

Did she favor Trump?

US Department of Justice

Box of classified files found overflowed in Mar a Lago warehouse

After the FBI discovered thousands of secret files at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Trump sued the government for its “despicable raid” and for “illegally seizing” documents he claimed were his personal property.

He asked the court to appoint a third party to review what was taken.

Judge Cannon barred investigators from accessing the evidence and appointed a so-called “special master” to determine whether any of the documents were protected by executive privilege – a legal doctrine that would prevent the government from viewing the documents of Mr. Trump.

She ordered the special master to make his recommendations to her only, so that she could make a final decision.

Those actions were later rebuked by a three-member appeals court, which said Judge Cannon tried to “create a special exception” for Trump.

The appearance of what she had done was such that Cecilia Antonaga, the chief judge of the Southern District of Florida, called Judge Cannon after she was assigned the case and advised him not to supervise it , according to the New York Times.

She refused again.

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Much like his presidency, Trump's criminal prosecution has divided the country

Since accepting the case, she has repeatedly pushed back deadlines and a trial that was supposed to begin in May now has no start date.

She also spoke out against the prosecution multiple times and held hearings on most of the allegations — including the most outlandish — from Trump's defense team.

Government lawyers clashed with the judge several times, including during a hearing in March, during which one urged her to “keep moving things forward.”

I can assure you that in the background there is a lot of legal work going on, she replied.

So while at first glance it doesn't seem like anything is happening, there's a ton of work being done.

But it is a three-day hearing that began Friday that now poses the greatest danger to this trial.

Judge Cannon will allow arguments on whether Mr. Smith was legally appointed special counsel. Trump claims he wasn't because the U.S. Senate didn't confirm him, while the Justice Department says Attorney General Merrick Garland has the authority to appoint special counsels.

The judge will also hear a defense challenge to how Mr. Smith's office was funded, as well as prosecutors' request for a gag order against Trump.

She will provide oral argument time at those hearings to outside parties, including right-wing nonprofit groups and former government officials.

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Judge Cannon's courthouse in Fort Pierce is two hours north of Miami

Can she be removed from the case?

In April, Judge Cannon denied Trump's request to dismiss the charges against him on the grounds that the classified documents belonged to him under the Presidential Records Act.

Calls for his removal have grown, but disqualifying a federal judge from a case is not easy.

A motion from Mr. Smith's team to remove it is expected to go to the judge herself.

The court of appeals which supervises its tribunal also has the power to reassign a case in order to preserve in the public mind the image of absolute impartiality and fairness of the judiciary.”

This can occur either through independent actions of the court or at the request of the special counsel team.

These three approaches will likely delay the trial even further.

And with little chance now that proceedings begin before the election, a returning President Trump could simply dismiss the case by pardoning himself, firing Mr. Smith or ordering his Justice Department to dismiss him.

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