Judge Aileen Cannon

Judge Cannon – the alleged biased judge

by Dave

Judge Cannon is the assigned judge in the Classified Documents Case. So far, Judge Cannon rulings have not impressed legal experts (putting it mildly). Donald Trump’s strategy is to push the trial out to 2025. Any attempt to schedule it before the elections, and he will be shouting at his rallies that this is election interference. If he can win the election, he will find an Attorney General to dismiss the case.

In June 2023, the New York Times noted her lack of experience in legal trials. They noted she has presided over only 4 very short criminal cases which summed to 14 trial days.

NY Times, June 2023, Judge in Trump Documents Case Has Scant Criminal Trial Experience

Judge Scheindlin calls Judge Cannon insecure, without the confidence to identify frivolous motions, and deny them from the bench (without scheduling hearings). Ty Cobb who was Trump’s lawyer in the White House, also concurs that she is playing along with Trump’s delay game.

See CNN link.

The Hill, Ty Cobb rips Trump documents judge: ‘This case could have easily gotten to trial’

Ty Cobb’s biography is given at the end of this posting. Obviously, to be part of the White House legal counsel, when Donald Trump was facing impeachment, you have to have a great reputation.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has requested from Judge Cannon, a gag order to control wild falsehoods about the FBI’s orders to use deadly force with the intent of assassinating Donald Trump. See link:

CNN link: Retired Judge responds to gag order in Trump documents case

CNN link: Explanation of FBI Instructions on search warrants

She knows if she rules in favor of the prosecutor, Trump will immediately go on the attack, saying that Biden ordered him silent. That just isn’t true. The ruling has to come from Judge Cannon. Trump will not attack Judge Cannon, as he sees her as good for the defense.

It is very hard to delay a ruling as Trump continues to champion the “big lie” that the Mar-a-Lago search was an attempted hit job.

This is an evolving story. No trial date has been set, dozens of pre-trial motions have yet to be ruled on.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Trump’s legal woes: The scheduling is clarified, sort of

by Dave

The art of a deal, is in true form. It is the art of delaying the start of four criminal trials until after the elections in November. If this were a game of bowling, four cases delayed to after the election would count as a strike.

The Jan 6 federal case start date of March 4 has been postponed indefinitely. The immunity case is in the Appellate court and Fischer is in the Supreme Court. The Fischer case is not directly tied to Trump’s court case, but the application of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, is the basis of two of the four counts against Trump. I expect these impediments will be gone before the end of the Supreme Court term in July.  

This clears the schedule for the Hush Money case to begin on March 20, 2024, so that pretty much fills up April. I don’t think Trump’s team can delay this one. So, one of the four pins are still standing.

So, all eyes turn to the Classified Documents case, to be held in Ft. Pierce, FL as the logical successor, with a start date of May 20, 2024. The charges are 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. 

On February 2, 2024, the DOJ filed a 67-page brief stating that they had fully complied with discovery in the documents case. The first reporting of the DOJ filing is on Feb 2 at 10:30 pm by NBC news. The brief begins:

“The defendants have received substantial, timely, and thorough discovery in this case. By early September 2023, the Government had provided the defendants with over 1.28 million pages of unclassified discovery and all of the CCTV footage obtained in the investigation; since then, the Government has supplemented its production as necessary. This production not only complies with the Government’s constitutional and rule-based discovery obligations; it goes far beyond. The Government recognizes its discovery obligations, has complied with them, and will continue to do so. The defendants have nevertheless filed a lengthy motion to compel in which they seek abstract rulings on the scope of the prosecution team and various directives that the Government provide them with a range of additional material.”

Obvious, Trump’s team wants this case to start after the election. Can Trump’s team finagle delays in this case? Yes, if Judge Cannon makes a ruling in favor of Trump on discovery issues, then DOJ will appeal to the 11th Circuit. But it is abundantly clear from the brief, that Trump’s team has really opened the barn door on what could be relevant in this trial, including “selective prosecution.”  Discussion begins on page 37 of brief. 

“Defendants might suggest to the jury that they should be acquitted based on a theory of selective prosecution, that would plainly be inappropriate.”

Can Trump’s team finagle delays in this case? Yes, if Judge Cannon makes a ruling in favor of Trump on discovery issues, then DOJ appeals to the 11th Circuit. 

See link: Prosecutors hit back at Trump’s accusations of political bias in classified documents case

Judge Aileen Cannon has scheduled a hearing date of March 1, 2024 to review the start date of May 20, 2024. The Republican Party Convention would be July 15 -18, 2024. I am certain she doesn’t look forward in scheduling a trial as Trump is completing the primary campaign. 

Selective prosecution is not a defense in the courtroom, but is one to add to House Republican’s attack on Biden with impeachment, Rep. Jim Jordan’s committee investigating the weaponization of government, and the radical MAGA Republicans. Any trial, in any courtroom from now until election day, will be blamed on President Biden.

If Trump is elected, there will be no Special Counsel, and no prosecution of Trump for the January 6 attack or the Classified Document’s case. He can avoid the Georgia conspiracy trial, because he is the sitting president. So, now as an ex-president, he likely will lose the claim of immunity, but once president, he will not stand trial in Georgia. 

I said the scheduling has been clarified, as it looks like the Hush Money goes first. What should follow is any one of the remaining 3 cases. 

The Special Counsel’s brief asking Judge Cannon to reject the need for additional documents sought by Trump’s legal team is given below. I believe Trump lawyers may file a reply brief. I fear Trump’s lawyers are winning at the delay game.

Stay tuned,

Dave

aa-trumps-document-case-discovery-filingDownload

Trump’s Documents Case: Special Master is Gone

by Dave

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in favor of the Department of Justice, and ended the review by the Special Master of seized documents as Judge Aileen Cannon had ordered.

Chief Justice John Roberts remarked in an interview, that he likes to write opinions that ordinary people can understand. Many of the opinions fall short of this goal. The Appellate Court delivered a “Roberts’ gem.” The 19 page decision gets to the point quickly. Judge Cannon did not have the right to order the Special Master review of seized documents. Donald J. Trump verses the United States of America sets out unique privileges that former presidents or any former official just don’t have.

trump-ca11-2022-12-01Download

I am certain that Judge Cannon focused on a very narrow balancing act, between the right of the Department of Justice need for documents for possible prosecution, verses Donald Trump right to have returned to him, those documents which were clearly personal items. So, I guess her thinking was that if DOJ and Trump could work out rules for a speedy review, her order would stand.

But, Judge Cannon goes from law to politics, when she goes from singular to plural in just one word. And the Appellate Court catches her, as she claims she must consider the parties need for the documents, instead of the party (Donald Trump) to support the need of the Special Master review. I can see now, why the Department of Justice needed an expediated appeals hearing. The judge was re-writing case law and setting a dangerous precedent, that makes every search warrant a balancing act between parties.

The opinion’s first line: This appeal requires us to consider whether the district court had jurisdiction to block the United States from using lawfully seized records in a criminal investigation. The answer is no. And the next 18 pages, show clearly why the Judge’s opinion lacks merits based on case law.

Then, starting on page 20, the opinion in two sentences sums up the problem with Judge Cannon’s decision. “The law is clear. 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.”

There are in fact, situations where the Department of Justice will ask for a Special Master to review documents. And other times, where the search went beyond the warrant or there is client-attorney privileged documents, best handled by a third party, as a Special Master overseen by a court magistrate.

The beauty of this opinion is that the Appellate Court is crystal clear that the burden for blocking access to seized material was with Trump, and he failed to pass the “Richey Test.” On page 20, the Appellate Court states:

The Richey test has been in place for nearly fifty years; its limits apply no matter who the government is investigating. To create a special exception here would defy our Nation’s foundational principle that our law applies “to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who violated this principle, is not called out. That’s not the way opinions are written. But, she definitely is soundly condemned by this ruling.

The Special Master is gone. The FBI’s internal review by their filter team can begin.

Stay tuned,

Dave