by Marilyn W. Thompson
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A common interest team argued in a legal registration on Tuesday that Judge Aileen M. Cannon should get fired because she “preserved the appearance of justice” when she handles legal cases against former president Donald Trump.
A retired federal judge and two democratic attorneys joined Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in filing the short, which directly challenges Cannon’s decision to dismiss Trump’s case against him for allegedly handling classified documents improperly. A democratic open-government lobbying group called CREW has been at the forefront of battling Trump in numerous legal battles.
The brief contends that Cannon’s decision “hinged on ignoring the basic text of four national statutes,” citing a landmark Supreme Court decision that confirmed the Attorney General’s authority to appoint a Unique Counsel.
According to CREW,” a fair member of the public may draw the conclusion, as many have done, that the termination was the culmination of Judge Cannon’s numerous efforts to undermine and disrupt the prosecution of this case.”
In a stunning decision on July 15, Cannon claimed Attorney General Merrick Garland had overstepped his bounds by appointing Smith as a particular guidance without the consent of the Congress and that this was in violation of the separation of powers. ” The Unique Counsel’s place successfully usurps that significant legislative authority”, she said. Critics claim that decision was wrong and ignored years of precedent, including a landmark Supreme Court decision.
Smith filed an appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but he chose not to request that Cannon get dropped if the case was remanded.
Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge from Massachusetts, was one of several functions who joined CREW as a friend of the court. She told ProPublica that she felt the choice could not be explained by her lack of experience or workload.
” It was evidently bias”, said Gertner, who is a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, citing repeated decisions from Cannon that were favorable to Trump’s lawyers. ” And with this Supreme Court, there’s no sky. All norms are up for grabs”.
If the original prosecutor “has engaged in conduct that gives rise to the appearance of impropriety or a lack of impartiality,” the provincial rules governing the change of cases grant that court the authority to request that the district’s chief prosecutor move the situation. The small cites many precedents, but reassignment based on administrative bias is unusual.
After losing the election to Joe Biden, Cannon, 43, was chosen by Trump to the Southern District of Florida’s Fort Pierce court in November 2020. In 2022, she was chosen at random to handle the Trump document-handling event.
The circuit’s Judicial Council dismissed a number of wrongdoing complaints against Cannon in May, alleging that she had been acting unfairly and that she should have resigned from the situation as a Trump appointee. The board stated that it would not punish a determine unless it found a pattern of slowness in many cases and that it had not mandated her recusal in light of her appointment. Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. stopped a planned strategy that at the period that resulted in more than 1, 000 letters requesting her treatment.
Trump praised her in his acceptance speech as a “highly respected national judge” willing to fight what he has called Smith’s “witch hunts” in the wake of Cannon’s abrupt decision to reject her case on the first day of the Republican National Convention.
Represented by San Francisco lawyer Steven A. Hirsch of Keker, Van Nest & Peters, CREW described Cannon’s decision to end the case as” the culmination of many efforts to undermine and derail the prosecution”. In a number of unprecedented rulings that Cannon appeared to have” created a parallel legal universe for former presidents,” the statement crossed the line between “active judicial interference and advocacy” for Trump.
CREW criticized Cannon for using Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ‘ lone concurring opinion in a case involving Trump’s immunity and, shortly afterward, issuing a 93-page opinion that refuted the justice’s claim that Smith’s prosecutions were constitutionally inviolate.
CREW details “dramatic and unusual” controversies during Cannon’s case that offer the appeals court “more-than-adequate grounds to reassign the case upon remand”.
The 11th Circuit has taken the unusual step of reversing Cannon twice throughout the course of the case, including a severe rebuke of her choice to appoint a special master to screen classified documents in December 2022.
Cannon approved the appointment of a senior federal judge in New York and a number of federal consultants to examine documents taken from Mar-a-Lago in Florida. A special master was unnecessary, according to Smith’s complaint to the appeals court, which slowed down the prosecution.
According to CREW,” If the court reverses Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s decision in this matter, it will be the third time in less than three years that it has to do so in a seemingly straightforward case involving a former president’s unauthorized possession of government documents.”
Please contact Marilyn W. Thompson at marilyn.com if you have any information about Judge Aileen M. Cannon. thompson@propublica .org or call 917-512-0243.
Alex Mierjeski contributed research.
