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By Jacob Pamus and Miriam Rafery
Photo: Judge Aileen M. Cannon, official portrait via U.S. Southern District Court in Florida
June 12,2023 (Washington D.C.) --The federal judge in Florida’s Southern District who is handling Donald Trumps’ indictment over classified documents at his home is Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020. She is slated to preside over Trump's arraignment tomorrow afternoon. Trump has denied guilt in public statements since being informed of the indictment.
Last year, Judge Cannon ruled in favor of allowing Trump to have a special master review documents seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago home. This temporarily halted prosecutors’ investigation into the stolen documents. The Justice Department said that this decision, one of several pro-Trump rulings made by Cannon, would “significantly harm important governmental interests, including national security interests."
Her ruling was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the11th Circuit, which found that Cannon had "improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction." The Appeals court judges, including Trump appointees, ordered Cannon to lift the block she had imposed on prosecutors’ accessing the documents.
Those documents, once reviewed by prosecutors, resulted in 37 felony counts filed against Trump under the Espionage Act. He is accused of putting national security at risk by improperly storing classified documents and sharing some with others who lacked national security clearance, including military plans to attack a foreign nation. Documents seized after he refused to turn them over include information on U.S.nuclear capabilities and vulnerability in case of attack, according to the Dept.of Justice.
Now, some legal experts are calling on Cannon to recuse herself from hearing the case due to a perceived bias, Newsweek reports. Some fear that a biased judge might approve motions to stall a trial until after the 2024 presidential election, or impose a lesser sentence if a jury were to convict Trump.
For example, Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University, has called on Cannon to recuse herself from the case. "For her to re-emerge as the judge presiding over this historic trial would cast a long shadow over a proceeding that should be,and should be seen to be, entirely unbiased and legally sound."
If Cannon does not recuse, the U.S. Justice Dept. could take the unusual step of seeking to recuse the judge by questioning her impartiality, a process that is rarely successful. Another option would be for the chief judge of the district court, Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga, to reassign the case to a more experienced judge.
If Cannon remains on the case, the eyes of the world will be upon her to see if she conducts the case as would be done for any other criminal defendant, or whether she shows favoritism toward the former president and current presidential candidate.The presiding judge would also handle sentencing if Trump is convicted on any of the 37 felony counts, some of which carry maximum sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison per count, though minimums could be fines or far shorter sentences.
The indictment over mishandling classified documents is the second criminal indictment of Trump, who also faces trial in New York state over alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. In addition, a Georgia grand jury has indicated it will announce this summer where to recommend criminal charges against Trump for pressuirng election officials to alter election results in the 2020 presidential election.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1181310860/aileen-cannon-trump-indictment
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/05/1120885510/doj-trump-special-master-judge
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/02/1120643423/judge-unseals-list-documents-fbi-trump-mar-a-lago
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-judge-aileen-cannon-recusal-classified-documents-1805939
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/trump-indictment-remove-judge-aileen-cannon.html
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