As all eyes are on Trump’s New York hush-money trial outcome, the special prosecutor in Trump’s Florida classified documents case, Jack Smith, and his team want to make sure that they won’t let Judge Aileen Cannon have a rest despite recently postponing the start of the trial indefinitely. Since the legal process in this particular case has started, Judge Cannon has constantly been accused of being biased and siding with Trump, helping him in the case with various different and somewhat controversial decisions. Legal experts have said on numerous occasions that these actions could lead to her being dropped from the case.
A huge mistake by Trump and the Republicans
Trump wants to be in the spotlight, and last week, with the help of several other Republican lawmakers, he managed to get in the focus of the media, once again blaming the Department of Justice for ‘weaponizing the system’ against him. In well-known Trump rhetoric, the former president said DOJ was “locked & loaded ready to take me out” during the 2022 search at his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents. This claim seems to stem from Trump’s interpretation of court documents that were made public on Tuesday regarding his case about possessing classified documents. It mentioned that “Law Enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary.”
Potentially very wrong move
Two days after the documents were made public, Attorney General Merrick Garland labeled Trump’s claims as “extremely dangerous” while addressing the media on Thursday and further elaborating on the “controversial order” in the warrant given to the FBI. Garland explained that the document that is being referred to in the allegation is the Justice Department standard policy limiting the use of force. And Trump’s false claims are now turning against him in the Florida case.
Judge Cannon in problem
On Friday, George Conway, a conservative attorney, discussed his views on how former President Donald Trump has created a difficult situation for Judge Aileen Cannon with his recent statements. Trump claimed that the FBI planned to assassinate him during their search of his Mar-a-Lago property in August 2022.
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“This really puts Judge Cannon on the spot. This woman has absolutely completely shown an absolute bias against the government from day one. In multiple ways, she’s dragging her feet on this case and if she does not do something about this, I think the special counsel will use this as the opportunity to try and get the 11th Circuit to get rid of her. So, she is really on the spot here,” George Conway said.
This assertion came to light shortly after it was disclosed that special prosecutor Jack Smith had filed a request with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In this filing, Smith urged Judge Cannon, who was nominated to her position by Trump in 2020, to impose a gag order on the former president because of his controversial claims regarding the FBI.
“Do you think she will do something? I don’t know, but she better because this is just completely outrageous. I mean it really is an attempt to incite violence against government agents based on the complete pathological lie and… obscene misreading of a standard document,” Conway added speaking on CNN.
Cannon rejects the gag order Tuesday
On Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon turned down the gag order proposal in Donald Trump’s trial regarding classified documents. She based her decision on the grounds that the submission was not sufficiently respectful. Judge Cannon criticized the gag order, filed by special counsel Jack Smith last week, for being “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy.” She also pointed out that the filing did not provide adequate time for Trump’s legal team to respond to the request.
“Because the filing of the Special Counsel’s Motion did not adhere to these basic requirements, it is due to be denied without prejudice. Any future, non-emergency motion brought in this case—whether on the topic of release conditions or anything else—shall not be filed absent meaningful, timely, and professional conferral,” Cannon wrote in part.
Judge Aileen Cannon has provided several advantageous rulings to the likely GOP presidential nominee during the trial. Earlier in the month, she issued a temporary halt on Trump’s obligation to notify the government in advance about the classified materials to be discussed in the trial. Notably, she did not specify an end date for this stay, which essentially puts an indefinite pause on the case. Legal experts have expressed concerns that Cannon’s slow approach and reluctance to speed up the federal obstruction case might postpone the trial until after November. They speculate that this might be a covert method by the Trump-appointed judge to dismiss the trial entirely.
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If Jack Smith thinks like George Conway, this is his chance to use the gag order rejection as an opportunity to try and get the 11th Circuit to remove Cannon from the case.
