Aileen Cannon: Portrait of a Judge in the Fractured Double Reality of American Justice
By Julie Kelly, RealClearInvestigations
April 3, 2024.1/3 or 4
The residents of Fort Pierce, Florida, are not accustomed to seeing dark SUVs and flashing motorcycles speed down the town’s main thoroughfare bordering the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Part beach getaway, part working class community, the city is located about 60 miles north of the luxurious Palm Beach estate of the most famous – and frequent –criminal defendant in recent history: Donald J. Trump.
The former president has become a regular visitor to the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, more specifically, the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the so-called classified documents trial.
When Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a sprawling indictment against Trump that included 32 counts of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly taking national defense records when he left office, he not only put the 43-year-old judge in the spotlight – he also put her in the crosshairs.
Since being assigned the case in June 2023, Cannon has been widely attacked by Trump’s critics, who demand that she recuse herself from the case for a variety of reasons, including a perceived conflict based on the fact she was appointed by Trump in 2020, and on her inexperience on the bench.
A few days after Cannon received the case, Barbara McQuade, an Obama-appointed assistant U.S. attorney and cable news legal analyst, told the Washington Post, “Judge Cannon could delay the case at the request of Trump, either to provide time to adequately prepare for trial or to avoid interfering with his presidential campaign. She really has the ability to wreak havoc.”
That same week, Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, told MSNBC, “I don't have confidence in her abilities to be fair or to be seen as fair.
Michael Bromowich, one of the lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, tweeted that Cannonwas not “experienced, smart, [or] impartial” enough to handle the history-making case. “If she has any self-awareness, she should recuse herself.”
Since then, the drumbeat for her recusal has intensified. Like another Trump appointee, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who rejected the sweetheart plea dealprosecutors offered Hunter Biden in Delaware,Cannon has rankled critics by expressing a strong skepticism of the Department of Justice, which has been tarnished by the Russiagate collusion hoax and other scandals.
The demands for Cannon’s removal find echoes on the other side of the political spectrum, from Trump’s lawyers. They argued that Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is handling Smith’s other case against Trump in Washington, D.C., should recuse herself for repeatedly expressing anti-Trump bias while presiding over Jan. 6 Capitol protest cases. Chutkan denied that motion last year. (With rare exceptions, judges ultimately decide for themselves whether to step down from a case.)
The attacks on Cannon and other judges reflect how partisanship increasingly colors the understanding of the rule of law. Court watchers say that politics has always influenced America’s courts,but the nation’s growing political divide, in which different people seem to embracedifferent sets of truths, has many people finding nefarious motivesin rulings they do not like.
Since being assigned the case, Cannon has issued aseries of decisions unfavorable to the Department of Justice. During a March 14 hearing,she pointedly forced the government to admit that no former presidentor vice presidenthas ever been prosecuted under the Espionage Act==. In so doing, the judge hinted at what many perceive to be a double standard toward Trump, days after Special Counsel Robert Hur testified before Congress on why he did not bring similar charges against President Biden, Trump’s political foe.
Judge Cannon haschastised Smith’s team for making unnecessary redactionsto court documents; forfailing to produce discoverymaterial to the defense on time; and fornot creating a secure facility for the defenseto review sensitive files. She has also accused the prosecution ofabusing the grand jury processby conducting nearly all of its investigation in DOJ-friendly D.C. rather than southern Florida, the more logical jurisdiction, and forattempting to remove one of the defense attorneysin the case for an alleged conflict of interest.
(https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/04/03/portrait_of_a_judge_reflected_in_the_fractured_double_reality_of_american_politics_1021972.html