Aileen Cannon Bows to Donald Trump
Aileen Cannon has made official what has been obvious for some time. She has no intention of moving forward on Donald Trump’s stolen documents trial with any kind of order or speed.
The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture—before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming—would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court, critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury.6 The Court therefore vacates the current May 20, 2024, trial date (and associated calendar call), to be reset by separate order following resolution of the matters before the Court, consistent with Defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice.
Instead, she will entertain every one of his frivolous motions for months and months and months.
Again, none of this is surprising. But it is Cannon’s commitment to let a man accused of stealing hundreds of classified documents potentially regain the White House with no accountability for his alleged theft.
This case will give Jarndyce v Jarndyce some competition before it’s resolved.
Apt comparison.
Spot on. Bleak indeed.
Cannon has marred her copybook, but temporarily delayed the House of Trump’s bleak prospects. The question is whether Trump lacks the will to take advantage of it before he exhausts his fortune. Despite his jarndyced view, he has forged new fortunes from new wills before, and cost his siblings theirs.
You take your Chanceries where you can.
Nemo, ni less.
It was the best of crimes; it was the worst of crimes.
The Dickens quote, from the opening of A Tale of Two Cities, is so apt, it deserves quoting in full:
Except that Jarndyce v. Jarndyce really WAS complicated and the chancellor was not appointed by one of the parties.
Legal fees eventually exhausted even the Jarndyce fortune. At the end of the book the case was closed and all the solicitors had a feast day. It might happen that Trump’s criminal cases are never resolved, especially if it’s true he and Putin have discovered eternal life with Med Beds, but Biden and the FDA prevents, so this is where the analogy breaks down, though, because, for all intents and purposes, the US Govt., the RNC, and maybe Trump are immortal, and Cannon, or Cannon’s replacement, someday, could keep delaying things for a long time.
An over-literalness is the enemy of every analogy. The metaphorical point is that the legal system worked not to resolve the issues, however, complex, but to reward itself. It’s a traditional, if imperfect, analogy, but it works.
Cannon seems not to be working to manage her case, to promote justice and a speedy trial, or to resolve credible issues. She is working to honor fantastical and incredible claims because they protect someone, Trump, a status, a former president, or a political cause he represents in her worldview and to her patrons.
Hopefully Trump will soon be in Rikers with plenty of time before having to face trial in FL.
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Trump will never spend time in Rikers Island. House arrest, federal minimum security prison, maybe.
On an existential level, if you squint, overthink it, and partake in certain chemical substances, the White House can be viewed as a kind of metaphorical prison. So, through that convoluted lens, come November Trump will be looking at a four year sentence!
You do realize that this is not helping.
Oh well. I guess we can all take comfort in the fact that at least she’s a well-qualified jurist.
Personally, I’m imagining Judge Chutkan on a rowing machine, keeping her heart rate level, ready to grab her case back from the Supreme Court to sort out what Trump can be charged with and getting it on the docket again. Trump won’t be needed in Florida, after all…
Happy to see that misunderestimating the distinction between having sufficient academic and legal experience to qualify as a federal judge with having the temperament, judgment, and priorities to be a judge, remains in full bloom.
In the real world, temperament and judgment are part and parcel of the requirements to be a judge. In fact, every time a confirmation hearing is held that’s part of what’s discussed. And it’s discussed as part of the job (I.e., as requirements).
IANAL, I’m just a guy on the internet. But as a citizen of this country it’s not out of line to consider a candidate’s approach to the law when determining if they are qualified.
But by all means, ignore her obvious conflicts and biases because she has a law degree and clerked for a guy.
Not much familiarity with how the US has appointed its federal judges then. I would caution against confusing not being able to do change a feature of the American political landscape with ignoring it.
As I read her five page order, she seems to be very upset about being criticized for dragging her feet (for whatever reason). Footnote 7 just screams “I have TOO been working!” and if you listen closely, you can probably hear her stamping her foot.
Shorter Aileen Cannon: “Judgifying is hard!”
Cannon flatters herself by calling this a “complex-designated case.”
Cannon explicitly tolling the Speedy Trial Act through at least late July was a nice touch.
And then there’s this from footnote 2: “Nevertheless, to the extent an additional CIPA § 5 notice becomes necessary to account for subsequent developments not encompassed within the timeframes set forth in this Order, the Court will consider that request upon a showing of need.”
IOW, she’s laying out a road map for Team Trump to request additional delays. “These are the motions you need to make, and I will of course consider them with all deliberate speed.”
Deliciously correct use of a self-contradictory nautical term.
Footnote 7 also blames those pesky journalists for her workload:
“addressed related filings by the Press
Coalition on matters of public access”
Everyone expected Trump to gum up the works and he’s using Nauta and DeOliviera to do the same. How much delay is unavoidable given their quibbling over everything, page by page if they can, and how much to Cannon dragging her feet?
“many of which present novel and difficult questions”
For her or for anyone? Is she flailing around because she’s out of her depth?
Its hard to believe that kind of childishness appears in a court order. But I have to believe you have correctly excerpted it.
The jury is out on whether Cannon is being childish or intentionally enabling her once and future Commander-in-Chief.
In my opinion, the sooner we begin ALWAYS evaluating from a base of understanding that the MAGA + Traditional GOP Alliance of Malignance is deliberately and with malice working toward the total reversal
of American Democracy for their own power and financial benefit, the better.
Shorter Cannon:
“Neener neener neeeeener,
You can’t make me”
Does Jack Smith have any recourse here?
Not really.
What about issuing a report? SC already affirmed that one photo of a classified document was sent in text messages on Nauta’s phone.
Trump can’t be trusted with State secrets.
You mean like Mueller did? Pass.
Other than dropping the charges, and refiling later, perhaps in a different venue?
Perhaps not in FL, but this clears the field for DC if/when SCOTUS remands that case back. I have faith that Judge Chutkan and SC Smith have their likely tasks ready to go for the evidentiary hearing to follow.
What seemed as a possibility of bias in her initial rulings/statements, became a probability, and now seems an outright given. Not a masterful use of subtlety here.
I’m thinking Thomas’s robes can be tailored down to fit Cannon very nicely. Not sure if Ginny still needs a special hideaway inside.
Trump needed some good news today.
In other news, I was able to locate Barron’s graduation start time on the 17th. It’s at 10am, so with a nice graduate lunch, Trump can fly off to Minnesota in plenty of time for a fundraiser and let Barron have a parent-free evening party.
Of course, Trump said at a rally in Duluth in 2020 that if he didn’t win the state he’d never return.
Minnesota has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Nixon in ’72.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/05/06/trump-in-minnesota-for-first-campaign-visit-of-latest-presidential-run
In other words, a win-win situation.
Quelle surprise.
Cannon was always going to suborn the trial; she’s untouchable legally, and berefit of either morals or pride.
Trump chose wisely.
This is not a shocking development, but disappointing nonetheless.
This is not a “complex” case, as Trump’s lawyers would have everyone believe. It may be “complicated” in the sense that CIPA procedures must be followed, but the actual facts are fairly simple. As alleged in the indictment, Trump willfully retained classified documents after his presidency, including National Defense Information; and he obstructed justice and conspired to obstruct justice by hiding the boxes of classified documents from his own attorney. Based strictly on the facts and the law, this should be the easiest case against Trump.
But Cannon is doing her best to delay proceedings, in the hopes that he is re-elected. It’s ridiculous, but it just reinforces that every vote in November matters
She was confirmed by the U.S.Senate on November 12, 2020.
Federal judge.
I’m well aware that Cannon is a federal judge. Your point is what, exactly??
I think it was that she was confirmed by an outgoing Senate and a lame duck president, which slightly undermines the idea that every vote in November matters.
Trump was not acting like a traditional lame duck president. He never intended to leave office. But the vote on Cannon suggests the Senate was acting like a lame duck body, aided by DINOs and blind traditionalists.
Federal district court judge Aileen Cannon is slow-walking addressing, let alone resolving, several sets of pretrial motions, in order to create a nominally insurmountable barrier to setting a trial date. The implication, of course, is that she may be attempting to tank the case, not just to delay it beyond the November election.
Cannon’s reasoning, if you can call it that, seems a tad circular. But she holds the keys to this particular hell in her pocket – although her conduct suggests it would be better to call this her briar patch.
At the risk of coming off like an unhinged conspiracy theorist I have to wonder if the clerks who ended their employment with Cannon early were provided with incentives to do so, and then MAGA operatives were hired as clerks to gum up the case as much as possible, even beyond Cannon’s own inclinations that way.
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Why would incentives need to be given? Cannon can fire her clerks at will.
“the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice.”
I read that and my favorite Princess Bride quote popped in to my head. “You keep using [those] word[s]. I do not think [they] mean what you think [they] mean”.
I guess the public’s interest in resolving this before the election is not a part of fair or efficient. Insert eye roll emoji.
OT to Rayne: My apologies for the last comment I made. As soon as I realized it was in moderation, I knew exactly what I had done. My multitasking wasn’t working too well that day.
Trying to look on the bright side here:
At least Cannon won’t block the time that Judge Chutkan would schedule her trial for and b) she (Cannon) won’t be able to instuct the jury to acquit, something which Smith iiirc couldn’t appeal because of double jeopardy.
It seems Trumps Supreme Court has that trial well in hand for delays until after the election.
Sure looks like Judge Cannon does not give a whit about US National Security, along with a whole lot of others in a position to know who are slow walking accountability for Donald Trump’s actions.
Shameful, really. I’m glad I’m not her mother.
The Supreme Court majority’s handling of Trump’s immunity claims suggests there are lots of similar players, an entire farm team, in fact, and that Cannon wants to move from single A to triple A ball.
Surely to put a man who has shown a vomit-inducing lack of respect for national security documents by leaving them in bankers boxes strewn around his club at Mar a Lago and likely elsewhere back in charge of such documents is a very bad idea.
The public should be protected against such a thing happening again. C’mon!
Unfortunately she is not out of options, so she won’t get DFA’d (designate for arraignment)
Earl @ 6:24
Certainly, she is working on her curve and slider.
I couldn’t resist jumping in late with the baseball metaphors.
“Certainly, she is working on her curve and slider”
Yea, getting to pitch in the big leagues means knowing how to work the strike zone even with self-proclaimed big league ‘neutral’ umpires.
Though I can only speculate what South Florida’s highbrow Cuban ex-pat culture is like, my imagination is lurid.
A throwback to the days of broken records.
methinks you politely misspelled whit
Shhhh! It happens.
Icy, what you did there.
Not a whit or iota of evidence supports that.
Not even a whitload?
I am blown away that most if not all of these trials will conclude after the election. Our right to know if if a potential (and likely) President of the United States is a criminal or not. should override anything else. I care not the difference between justice and legal when the stakes are the entire country and everyone in it.
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Cannon Family History and other influences on her:
I’ve been working on this for a while. I hope it’s useful to you.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/k0w125xqtvunu1uhlkzko/Update-19-Cannon-Family-Narrative.docx?rlkey=4e50qxz1j7gfdrkhphxqgjsfc&st=73fvnw7n&dl=0
Now that’s a url I would disable until I knew a lot more about it.
Appears to be safe. A word document stored in Dropbox, that’s all. No dangerous payload.
Increasingly, anxiously trying to shake off the foreboding feeling that Trump effectively skates on all of it. One+ hung juror(s) in the Stormy Daniels CusterFluck, Judge Cannon in Florida interminably melts clock, SCOTUS does a remand offramp, and Georgia – not sure what to say about that.
Less than six months to go. Project 2025 BC.
Ugh…
Georgia: state legislators actively working on trying to get Fani Willis removed from her position.
(Sorry)…
Cannon Folderol
From the great Atlantic Ocean
to the wide Pacific shore,
From the green ol’ Smoky Mountains
to the south lands we adore,
High-and-mighty gall and tantrum
hurts more than just a stall,
It’s a reckless combination,
We’re harmed by Cannon folderol.
She knows how to grumble,
to jumble, tug-of-war,
As she rides along a grandstand
with its trolls and even more,
Her almighty crush of circumvention,
Her ever loathsome stonewall
jeopardizes our defenses
with Cannon folderol.
Our eastern states are dandy,
so the people always say,
From New York to St Louis
with Chicago by the way,
From the hills of Minnesota
where the rippling waters fall,
but dangers there are present
due to Cannon folderol.
Now here’s to Special Counsel,
May the work steadfast command,
And justice be remembered
in the courts throughout the land,
That work is not yet over,
Please, rule of law don’t fall
as we press our way to victory
against Cannon folderol.
10/9/22; rev. 5/7/24
https://youtu.be/yaU2ptzGZX8
“Wabash Cannonball (Instrumental)”
Majestic even by your standards. Would pair nicely with “Orange (Turd) Blossom Special.”
Great job!
Well done.
Strum worthy! Where’s Arlo Guthrie when you need him? Though Judy Collins would do just as well.
Sassy college age child after reading this post:
Walking a very slow zombie walk and slowly saying, “Here come de judge! Here come de judge! She’s make’n sure the case won’t budge so here come de judge, here come de judge!”
Judge Cannon has shown herself to be out of her depth on this case from the git-go with the bizarre call for a special master early on and slightly later with the wackadoodle request for two hypothetical sets of jury instructions with nonsensical stipulations. Is it too late for Jack Smith to file a request for mandamus? By the way, I heard Marcy on Michaelangelo Signorelle’s Sirius XM radio show today and she was on fire! She covered the Cuellar and Menendez Democratic scandals, Trumps trials and the Bill Barr/Scott Brady sludge funnel that the mainstream media will not cover. Excellent job, Ms. Wheeler!
The jury’s out on whether Cannon is incompetent or intentional.
My personal view, after even more years of life than Rayne (sorry!), is that 5% of every profession (including my own: statistician) is corrupt, 10% is so incompetent that quite often they appear corrupt but actually aren’t, and another 20% is OK if what they are doing is a lot like the homework problems they got in school but run a serious risk of screwing up on the more complex stuff. YMMV. Warning: no actual statistics were used in the making of this post!
Sounds about right to me.
Is it? Has she made major errors on the side of the government that didn’t make news? It seems a pretty one-sided incompetence to truly be incompetence
I agree. Dumb like a fox is how I described her, to some objection here. For one thing, she has cannily avoided making an appealable, reversible ruling. She’s not about to make that mistake again.
I think she’s mostly afraid to do the difficult and dangerous thing of presiding over this trial, and that the delays are as much to her own benefit as they are to anyone else’s. So, corrupt, but differently.
Whatever motivates Cannon, it’s not fear.
Decades and decades of criming and barely any accountability for this con. WTF
“It’s Chinatown, Jake.”
You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they’re capable of ANYTHING.
Oh…I’m reading a very interesting book about the making of Chinatown by Sam Wasson, “The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood.” Amazing how it came together ultimately in the last days prior to opening. Satisfying read.
“If you see what I mean, they’ve sold you the dream
Down in Chinatown, what goes up, it must come down…”
Phillip Lynott
There is no way on God’s Green Earth she is quarterbacking this alone. I want to know who in FedSoc is advising her behind the scenes. Not going to do us any good if Pro Publica reveals in 3 years that she got more than luxury trips to Montana.
A lot of assumptions going on there. But grab your fedora and press pass and get right on it.
It is bullshit. Also, remember Smith chose this jurisdiction, he did not have to.
Also note the Stormy case has descended to where it was destined to head today. Frankly, while a mistrial was not going to be granted, it was a reasonable request for the record.
Is there some aspect of this not yet charged that could be brought elsewhere?
Yes, Smith chose this jurisdiction. Don’t know what kind of guardrails apply to these decisions, but surely they could have foreseen Trump lawyers having fun with CIPA. Why not DC?
Yes, you said that before, you think it should be started at the White House. They disagreed: their point of view was that, even when they packed, the benefit of the doubt can be given, and it is difficult to say who packed what etc. It could have been a mistake.
At Mar-a-lago, knowingly witholding the documents, refusing to hand them over, using them post presidency, which they think they can establish in court, that’s clear cut. And in that case, it happens in Florida, not in Washington.
Why should they acts to circumvent the rule of law they work to protect? The natural place to file is Florida, even if it isn’t convenient, and with a very great risk of having to deal with Cannon again, so they file there.
Oh, I get it — all journalists look (and act) like Glenn Thrush. Funny!!!
Cannon presided over less than 5 criminal cases and none involving classified documents before this one. Even if you think it’s largely incompetence, there is zero chance she’d understand how to deftly box Smith in with these delays without some outside help. She works alone in that courthouse, so she is not getting informal advice from more experienced colleagues across the hall. It’s coming from elsewhere.
The majority of the unlawful document retention took place in FL, not when his minions put the boxes on the sidewalk outside the WH. Same with obstruction. Pool report shows Marine One touched down at 10:54am in Palm Beach on Jan. 20, 2021, so even if the chopper was stuffed with boxes, he was still president. Smith had no real choice re venue.
Thanks @CPtight617. Those details help me understand why FL.
For some reason, and the first time in literally years, I have been logged out, and cannot log back in, partly because I have no idea what my password was/is, but I’m also getting a message saying my site privileges have been suspended; no reason given. Is the site wonky today?
At the risk of getting yelled at… any chance that she, or Clarence Thoms, or any other number of judges whose conduct has gone beyond conservative bench-legislating into at least some prima facie evidence of corruption… is getting investigated? Obviously, the DOJ would have to steer carefully of that, and it’s something that Smith should have nothing to do with.
Not sure if Cannon has done anything illegal; but bribery is illegal, for even Supreme Court justices. Though the threshold for proving it–an actual quid-pro-quo agreement seems to be needed, and mutual back-scratching in absence of a smoking gun seems to be insufficient.
But since the various published “ethical standards” for Federal judges are essentially a joke–there’s no consequence for violating them, as nobody is going to be impeached and removed by Congress for anything partisan political activity (including outright bribery by partisan actors, rather than apolitical ones seeking a primarily financial benefit), no matter how corrupt, that perhaps the criminal codes need to expand the definition of “corruption”.
Of course, I half expect the current SCOTUS to rule, sooner or later, that bribery is protected free speech, and that the Court’s holding in Citizen’s United and similar cases extends to ANY attempts to spend money to influence politics.
In all seriousness, I don’t expect Cannon is stupid enough to accept an actual quid pro quo bribe.
Bribery is mentioned in the Constitution as an example of high crimes and misdemeanors subject to impeachment, so I don’t expect the current SCOTUS is adept enough in yoga to tie itself into knots sufficiently to avoid that inconvenient fact.
I wonder if some of the agencies involved with less critical documents can declassify them to remove some of the obstacles. I have no idea whether that kind of strategy would be useful (and no doubt would be countered by Cannon in any case).
I’m sure Trump would love that. “See? It’s not that big a deal.”
The whole point of the charges is that Trump illegally retained sensitive national security information.
It’s not the entire point though. Are the Nat Sec documents necessary for the purpose of prosecuting all of the charges? I don’t know.
IOW does the Obstruction and False statements charges rely on the status and content of the documents themselves? If not, how does a possible conviction on those charges look at sentencing when points are stacked up on any other felony convictions he may have at that time?
Trump is saying it’s not a big deal now so I don’t know if that would matter.
The charges of willfully retaining national defense information are a big f*ing deal. Obstructing the efforts to retrieve that information, and making false statements to cover up how you obstructed those efforts all flow from just how big a f*ing deal it is to improperly retain national defense information.
Ask anyone who has ever held a security clearance: this matters.
People have lost their jobs for not treating this like a big deal, and other people have lost their lives because of that first group of people.
“does the Obstruction and False statements charges rely on the status and content of the documents themselves?”
Other people are smarter about such things, but when I did have a somewhat odd security clearance, the question you asked would have been the right question. I would expect someone would be on trial because they walked out the door (and refused to give back, etc.) with a document that was stamped Top Secret Codeword on the cover sheet.
This is why the current CIPA status seems so weird to me – the people in the courtroom shouldn’t need to open the document, they only need to look at the cover of the document. You might have to redact the document title, and I guess that’s one of the conversations you have at CIPA hearings, but if you are talking about the document contents at a trial for THESE charges, you have seriously gone into the weeds.
The cover is the whole point – not whether the document was correctly classified when it was created, or whether it could have been declassified before you walked out of the door with it, or when you were standing in the parking lot (“declassifying it with my mind”), or when someone noticed the document was missing, or when someone asked you where the document was, or when the document was recovered during a legal search and seizure operation, or when you were indicted, or when your judge was doing CIPA hearings (like, in this case, “now”). This isn’t supposed to be a self-immunizing crime if you manage to push the trial off for long enough, even if you’re NOT elected president.
I’m well aware it’s a big f*ing deal but I’m also aware classifications are subject to reclassifying which wouldn’t alter the charges for those particular items that are reclassified. I could be wrong of course but that’s why I’m throwing it out there. Cannon is clearly using CIPA among other things to set the case in concrete.
Rayne is there a reason I’m not getting reply buttons on the above responses from others? I’m not in the penalty box am I? My browser maybe?
It could be related to some work being done on the site. Can’t hurt to clear your cache, though.
I think there is a limit on how many replies to replies to replies a comment can have.
Peterr at May 8, 2024 at 7:16 pm
Yes, the ziggurat only allows comments to go (4) wide now. Any wider than that and comments were unreadable on mobile devices.
If a commenter wishes to reply to a 4th wide comment, they should open a new comment at the bottom of the page and preface their remark with the username/time and link to comment.
My hope and what I think likely is that Smith and team knew this would happen and they have long had their next moved planned out.
Maybe it’s Nauta?
I am amused by the reverence for judges that appears to underlie the dismay at Cannon’s behavior.
As a trudger of byways of Americana, I’ve encountered worse: Like the US district judge who resigned in the middle of a trial and then reappeared as a private prosecutor in the same action. Found in “Law and Order vs the Miners: West Virginia 1907-1933” by Richard Lunt.
You’re telling us you personally were involved in the trial back in 1907-1933? Or you just read about it?
“Americana” makes it a reference to “…books, papers, maps, etc., relating to America, especially to its history, culture, and geography.” (dictionary.com), not a reference to the actual event. Furthermore, H.E. cited the book in question. You can “encounter” something in a book, as in, “the first time I encountered the theory that Richard II did not murder the little princes in the tower was in the book ‘Daughter of Time` by Josephine Tey.”
I think you already know all this and just misread the post; not like I’ve never done that :), but just in case…
The commenter in question is an alleged former journalist and is supposedly gifted with language. They could have said they read of a single case in that source.
And you could have left it to them to respond since the exchange wasn’t about you. I think you already know all this and just decided to butt in.
I really like the phrase “As a trudger of byways of Americana” and wish I’d thought it up myself, not that I’m capable of it… the post seems clear to me.
I see her portrait and think, a typical Disney Villainess. Cruella DeSwille. I know, I know. Never judge a book by its cover.
Or, book a judge.
Regarding the fate of this case, given the near certainty it won’t be tried until after November 2024, and if, horror of horrors, Trump were to win the presidency again, isn’t Jack Smith’s work subject to the same immunity from tampering by future administrations as, say, John Durham’s?
Do you imagine a second Trump administration would be reluctant to interfere with and abuse the legal system to appease the whims of Donald Trump? Doing so would be its prime directive. Not doing so is one of Joe Biden’s.
From [pdf1/5] CANNON’s “Order Setting Second Set of Pre-Trial Deadlines/Hearings”
I wonder how that went today.
We have every reason to be cynical and skeptical when it comes to Judge Cannon’s moves in the national security documents case she is stalling.
Cannon may want to delay Trump’s trial date in perpetuity, but she gets there by burying Smith in paperwork in ways that might trip up essential parts of his case. She seems to be acting as an adjunct to Trump’s defense team.