Outrage continues as federal Judge Aileen Cannon, originally nominated to the federal judiciary by then-President Donald Trump himself, continues her handling of the federal criminal case against that former president on classified documents charges.
One of two federal criminal cases against Trump, it accuses the continued Republican Party figurehead of illegally harboring government documents after his time in office as president. As part of the matter, federal agents conducted a high-profile search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida in 2022, recovering a cache of the disputed materials. At least in terms of his personal, public commentary, Trump generally admits to having the documents, just insisting that he was in the right, supposedly holding appropriately wide-ranging powers.
Lisa Rubin at MSNBC drew attention this week to Cannon’s handling of a series of motions from Trump threatening the very continuance of the case on the occasion of the judge setting up further arguments on some of these claims.
“So, as of today, June 5, Cannon is moving through Trump’s seven motions to dismiss — all filed in late February — at a slothful pace and in a mystifying order,” Rubin said. “Although she is not required to have oral argument on any of them, she has, by my count, resolved (and grudgingly denied) only two, scheduled argument late this month on two more, and stalled on three others, even potentially allowing Trump to compel evidence relevant to one.”
And Cannon already indefinitely delayed Trump’s actual trial in the dispute, pushing trial in both of Trump’s federal cases to a similar fate as the Supreme Court’s consideration of Trump’s immunity claims in the other, election-related one keep it on hold as well. A decision from that court after in-person arguments remains forthcoming.
