Russian space nukesis more troubling than the federal prosecution brought by special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling classified documents. Unfortunately, the judge handling the case, Aileen Cannon—a last-minute appointment rushed through in the waning days of the Trump administration—has proved herself to be by far the worst of the jurists overseeing these momentous cases. Her decisions during the investigative phase of the case strayed wildly from precedent,Circuit.
In response to Smith’s reconsideration motion, Cannon ordered Trump to respond by Friday. That will set up a dramatic ruling by Cannon: Either she reverses her position—which would be an admission that she was fundamentally mistaken about the law in a way that caused “manifest injustice”—or she leaves her ruling in place, putting individuals in jeopardy and twisting the law to help Trump.
Startlingly, throughout those proceedings, she repeatedly expressed her view that Trump deserves special treatment because of his status as a former president.“as a function of Plaintiff’s former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own.” The 11to recuse herself from this case. She did not, and has continued to quietly oversee the proceedings.
, and not just with respect to the Florida prosecution. To make things worse, Cannon hasn’t actually gone ahead and rescheduled the trial date, interfering with the ability of other courts overseeing the Trump prosecutions to utilize that time. Because her May date is still on the books, she is in effect freezing other courts with Trump prosecutions from scheduling a trial that would overlap with her case.
With the simultaneous CIPA and discovery developments, we may know by the end of the month if Smith will take the remarkable step of requesting Cannon’s removal from the case. So far, the government has acted cautiously—indeed, just the other week, it handed over a sealed exhibit to Trump at Cannon’s orders, even though it warned her the exhibit contained information about an ongoing investigation.