No effin’ way! I don’t believe in coincidences. There is no way that this corrupt judge, who should have been impeached by now for her previous abuse of power in bestowing special favors to Donald Trump in the earlier iterations of this case, was fortuitously “randomly” assigned his case. The corruption in the Fascist State of Florida runs so deep, there just has to be a backstory to this.
CBS News reports, Aileen Cannon, Trump-appointed judge, assigned initially to oversee documents case:
A federal district judge in South Florida appointed by former President Donald Trump appears to have been assigned for now to oversee his criminal case involving his handling of sensitive government documents, CBS News confirmed.
The summons sent to Trump on Thursday notifying him of the indictment lists U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whose chambers are in Fort Pierce, Florida, as the judge assigned to preside over at least the initial proceeding, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News. Trump is slated to appear in federal district court in Miami on June 13 for his arraignment.
It’s unclear whether Cannon will remain the presiding judge for later stages in the case. ABC News was first to report her assignment.
Appointed to the federal bench by Trump in 2020, Cannon was involved in stages of the legal wrangling last year that stemmed from the FBI’s execution of a court-authorized search warrant at Trump’s South Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. In that search, federal investigators seized 33 boxes of material from the property, 13 of which contained roughly 100 documents bearing classification markings.
Trump filed a lawsuit in federal court requesting the appointment of a special master, or independent third party, to review the records recovered by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago, and Cannon presided over the dispute.
The judge granted Trump’s request for a special master and ordered the Justice Department to temporarily stop using the seized materials for its investigation pending completion of the special master’s review.
But her ruling was widely criticized by legal experts and upon appeal by the Justice Department, reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in a unanimous ruling. The three-judge panel that reviewed Cannon’s decision included two appointed by Trump, Judges Britt Grant and Andrew Beshear.
In an earlier stage of the fight over the special master, during which federal prosecutors sought access only to the batch of 103 documents marked classified, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request by Trump for the special master to have access to the sensitive records.
Sarah Burris adds, Florida AG candidate predicts DOJ will ask for Judge Aileen Cannon to be recused:
The judge initially assigned to oversee the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump will likely be subject to a recusal request from the Department of Justice, an expert said Friday.
Judge Aileen Cannon was initially assigned, ABC reported. She’s a Trump appointee who was previously humiliated by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for her earlier actions around the case when she tried to block the FBI from reviewing documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Daniel Uhlfelder, who ran an unsuccessful race for Florida attorney general in 2022, said he expects the recusal request was inevitable given her previous involvement.
Cannon appointed a special master last year to review materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago last year, then tried to block the FBI from reviewing documents saying, “A future indictment, based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude.”
She was overturned by Florida’s Court of Appeals.
“The law is clear,” Judge William Pryor wrote for the unanimous panel from the Eleventh Circuit. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so. Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”
Uhlfelder asked if the Justice Department prosecutors would move to have Cannon recused.
“If it does and is successful, the case will likely be transferred to Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, who is also in [West Palm Beach]. Trump unsuccessfully tried to recuse him before,” he tweeted Friday.
It appears Judge Cannon has been assigned the case. Will the Government seek to recuse her? If it does and is successful, case will likely be transferred to Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks who is also in WPB. Trump unsucessfully tried to recuse him before. https://t.co/iBw0whiCE3
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) June 9, 2023
UPDATE:
2. It would also seem like an absurd situation to count in Judge Cannon's favor that she already heard "related" case – when the 11th Circuit held unanimously that she never should have exercised jurisdiction in the first place, and completely contrary to law to have done so.
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) June 9, 2023
2/Altho a judge's behavior in court generally doesn't form the basis for recusal, the 11th Circuit has ordered "reassignment" where a judge leans so heavily for a defendant they call their objectivity in the eyes of the public into question. This is from US v. Martin pic.twitter.com/7jGLqJpaL9
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 9, 2023
4/It is not clear Cannon is permanently assigned to the case. If she is, it's extremely unlikely it stays with her and as a last resort, DOJ will challenge her participation and win.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 9, 2023
OUTSTANDING COMMENTARY.
Keep up the good work Glad to read your impressions.