Free Republic

Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon denied a DOJ request to keep evidence sealed in the Mar-a-Lago documents case against President Donald J Trump. Additionally, Cannon has demanded that Special Counsel Jack Smith explain why he is using an out of district grand jury to construct additional charges against the defendant. [2-page ruling pdf here] Cannon has presided over the document issues even before the indictment against Donald Trump was unsealed. As a result, she has a good frame of reference for the Lawfare tactics the Special Counsel is attempting to deploy.

The federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump delivered multiple blows to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s efforts in a brief Monday. Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida — who is presiding over the case that stems from a Miami grand jury’s June indictment of Trump — denied the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request for sealed filings, striking two from the record. Cannon also requested additional information from prosecutors about the continued use of an out-of-state grand jury to investigate the case. “The Special Counsel states in conclusory terms that the supplement should...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 BREAKING: I told you Judge Cannon is legit. She is not going to tolerate Jack Smith's bull***t. This is gold--she asks defense to raise possible grand jury abuse by DOJ for conducting nearly all of the investigation in DC then switching to FLA at last minute for indictment. 9:27 AM · Aug 7, 2023

Judge Aileen Cannon scheduled the trial for May 20, a compromise date later than prosecutors had sought but sooner than the indefinite delay requested by Trump. The trial will take place at the federal court in Ft. Pierce, Florida, according to the order.

A federal judge ordered all the attorneys involved in former President Donald Trump's classified documents case to move forward with the process to get security clearance. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon told all the attorneys to "complete all outstanding applicant tasks required to obtain the requisite security clearances in this matter" by July 13. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, previously ordered all the attorneys to begin the process by reporting to the Litigation Security Group of the Department of Justice. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts that allege he kept sensitive military documents, shared them with people...

The Biden Justice Department is reportedly preparing a superseding indictment of 30-45 more charges against former President Donald Trump, fearing a Trump-appointed judge might rule unfavorably against it. The scope of the charges could potentially bring the presidential documents case to another jurisdiction and include charges against Trump-tied associates, sources told The Independent. According to the report, the DOJ fears Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon – randomly selected for the case – might give deference to the former president. Trump is already facing a 37-count federal indictment delivered by special counsel Jack Smith. Among the charges are 31...

Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday asked a federal judge to push back the start of former President Donald Trump’s trial on charges that he willfully retained national security secrets and obstructed justice. In a court filing, Smith requested US District Judge Aileen Cannon to delay the trial by nearly four months — from Aug. 14 to Dec. 11 — arguing that both the prosecution and the defense need more time to prepare. The special counsel noted that the 77-year-old president’s defense team does not object to moving the date. Smith argued that the Aug. 14 date “would deny counsel...

So today we witnessed the next chapter in the spectacle of the DOJ’s ongoing efforts to “Get Trump” by whatever means necessary. This is all unfolding in Miami, where the former President is facing more than three dozen charges allegedly related to classified documents that he kept in Mar-A-Lago after leaving office. But one element of the initial hearing was changed at the last minute. The media had been throwing fits that the random selection of the judge in the trial went to Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. So at first glance, it seemed a bit odd that the arraignment...

Senior Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are raising concerns about what role Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon will have in handling the case the Department of Justice is bringing against former President Trump. Cannon, a member of the conservative Federalist Society who was confirmed to sit on the district court for the Southern District of Florida shortly after the 2020 election, made headlines last year when she ruled that an independent arbiter must review the 13,000 government records seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August. Her decision was later struck down by a three-judge panel made up from members...

On Friday, MSNBC acted "concerned" over the news that Aileen Cannon was chosen as the judge to oversee the Trump documents case. However, the MSNBC reaction was mild compared to the sheer panic over Cannon in an article published by Slate magazine that same day. Mark Joseph Stern, Slate's senior writer on legal matters sounds like he will spend many sleepless nights over his extreme fear that "Judge Aileen Cannon Can Absolutely Sink the Federal Prosecution of Trump."

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has been assigned, at least for now, to oversee the case stemming from Donald Trump's indictment, a source confirmed to NPR on Friday. Trump appointed Cannon to the bench in 2020, and she is the same judge who ruled in favor of Trump's request to appoint a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago last summer, a move that temporarily stopped federal prosecutors from continuing their investigation into the documents.

Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon will reportedly preside over former President Donald Trump’s second indictment, the “Boxes Hoax” case. The summons sent to Trump on Thursday listed Judge Cannon on the summons, people familiar with the summons told the Guardian. ABC News and CNN confirmed the Guardian‘s reporting. Cannon granted Trump a special master during the investigation last year. Breitbart News reported that some left-wing scholars and legal experts were furious, lashing out against Judge Cannon, claiming that she acted out of political motives and was even an accomplice to “obstruction of justice.”

Former President Donald Trump was recorded in 2021 acknowledging that he had kept “secret” military documents from his time in office without first declassifying them. The recording of the 76-year-old’s admission has been obtained by federal prosecutors, who secured an indictment of Trump on charges including willful retention of national defense information after retrieving thousands of documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort. “As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump, 76, said about a classified Pentagon paper outlining a potential military strike on Iran, according to a transcript of the meeting reported by CNN. “Secret. This is secret...

Former president Donald Trump’s legal effort to thwart a Justice Department investigation into classified documents seized from his palatial Palm Beach estate was officially tossed out Monday. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, after being rebuked by a federal appellate court for allowing Trump’s lawsuit to move forward, brought his controversial lawsuit to a halt after the court had ordered her to end it. “This case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” Cannon wrote in a one-page order released Monday. “The Clerk of Court shall close this case.” At the beginning of the month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in...

A federal judge on Monday dismissed Trump’s case challenging the FBI raid and seizure of documents from Mar-a-Lago. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case after a federal appeals court recently threw out the special master for Trump’s case. In September, Judge Cannon appointed a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Biden’s corrupt Justice Department argued that a special master didn’t have a right to filter out the seized documents. The court blasted Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, and said she erred in appointing Raymond Dearie as a special master to review documents seized...

A federal appeals court on Thursday halted Judge Aileen Cannon’s special master review in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents case. In September, Judge Cannon appointed a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Biden’s corrupt Justice Department argued that a special master didn’t have a right to filter out the seized documents. The court blasted Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, and said she erred in appointing Raymond Dearie as a special master to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. “The law is clear,” the judges wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to...

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Thursday overruled an order by Special Master Raymond Dearie that said former President Donald Trump needed to provide any "final" objections or disputes regarding the items seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago last month. Last week, Dearie asked the Trump team that by no later than Sept. 30 to provide a declaration of affidavit that includes a list of any specific items in the property inventory that they assert were not seized from the premises; a list of items that were seized but to which the description of the...

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied the Department of Justice's request for a partial stay of her ruling that enjoined the FBI from using roughly 100 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago with classification markings in its ongoing criminal investigation of Donald Trump -- and mandated they be handed over to a special master for review.Cannon has also appointed Raymond Dearie, senior district judge for the Eastern District of New York, as special master.In a filing last week that amounted to a line-by-line rebuke of Cannon's ruling, DOJ prosecutors wrote that they would seek intervention by the 11th Circuit Court...

The Justice Department and former President Donald Trump's legal team have found rare agreement in a potential candidate to serve as the special master tasked with reviewing the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. Judge Raymond Dearie, whom Trump's legal team put forward, is an acceptable option to serve as the third-party attorney to independently review the seized materials, the Justice Department said in a court filing Monday evening. While it remains unclear when US District Judge Aileen Cannon will decide who will serve as the special master, here's what you need to know about Dearie and the role he could play...

A Texas woman who allegedly left a series of threatening messages on the voicemail of a federal judge overseeing one of former President Donald Trump's legal fights in Florida was arrested last week, according to court documents. Tiffani Shea Gish, of Houston, left three voicemails for Aileen Cannon, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida who was nominated by Trump in 2020, according to court documents. Cannon is handling the former president's request for a special master to review documents and other items the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago last month. In the voicemails, Gish threatened to have Cannon...