U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon keeps using her vast discretion over her docket to Donald Trump’s benefit. She added a new dimension to that approach this week, further confirming that the former president won’t face trial in Florida this year. Perhaps more importantly, the Trump appointee’s latest maneuvers call into even more significant question how she’d handle any trial that happens in the classified documents case — if one ever happens.
The latest moves stem from a claim that has nothing to do with the charges themselves: the far-fetched defense argument that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment and funding are unlawful. It’s the sort of claim that other judges have rejected out of hand. But Cannon is choosing to hold hearings on the subject and further delay other matters.
Making things even weirder, she’s having outside parties weigh in on the appointment issue (two lawyers supporting Trump, one supporting Smith) in a full-day hearing June 21. It’s abnormal to involve outside parties at this trial stage of a criminal case. Cannon will also hear argument on the issue on June 24 in the morning, and only that afternoon will she hear argument over Smith’s motion to stop Trump from spreading the lie that law enforcement tried to assassinate him, an issue the special counsel first raised urgently May 24.
And in shuffling the calendar in an order Wednesday — which lays out the upcoming dates — Cannon canceled a multiday hearing over another defense motion she previously set for June 24-26. That will now happen at some uncertain point in the future, along with other issues holding up a possible trial against the presumptive GOP nominee, who will likely crush this case and his other federal case if he wins in November.
The Florida judge’s latest machinations come the same week that Trump’s Georgia state prosecution was officially paused pending his appeal to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Another Supreme Court opinion day passed Thursday without the justices deciding the immunity claim holding up his federal election interference case in Washington. One difference between those two cases (and the New York case set for July sentencing) and the Florida case is that the trial judges presiding over them have shown their ability and willingness to move cases along. The same can’t be said for Cannon, whom Smith may eventually take up on appeal on any number of issues. But before that might happen, along with the related (though presently still unlikely) possibility of getting a new judge on the case, she first needs to issue some rulings, something that doesn’t normally need to be said about a judge but apparently does here. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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