Over the course of seven public hearings related to Donald Trump's classified documents case, a picture has emerged of Judge Aileen Cannon sometimes appearing prepared for legal questions but at other times having difficulty comprehending even the simplest concepts.
In the view of prosecutors and several legal experts, her tendency to repeatedly ask the same question or miss the point of an argument is proof that the Trump-appointed judge is ill-suited to handle a trial that has already been delayed, repeatedly, by her willingness to grant hearings over the Trump team's most far-fetched requests. The case's slow progress, they argue, plays into Trump's strategy of pushing it past Election Day, and then, if elected, stopping it from ever happening.
In one exchange, prosecutor Jay Bratt invoked a common legal concept known as the Pinkerton rule, which holds that all parties to a conspiracy are liable for their co-conspirators' crimes. Bratt argued that the rule should apply to Trump's co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, two Mar-a-Lago employees accused of aiding Trump in obstructing the government's efforts to retrieve classified documents stashed throughout the luxury estate, including those containing the country's nuclear secrets.
Cannon, who appeared perplexed, asked Bratt what authority he intended to rely on. "So the authority is Pinkerton," Bratt responded, trying to explain that the rule stemmed from Supreme Court precedent.
"There are no words for this," wrote attorney George Conway, the ex-husband of Trump whisperer Kellyanne Conway. "Judge Cannon doesn't know the most basic rule governing criminal conspiracies."
Cannon has generally issued rulings on lawyers' requests only after lengthy (some say overly lengthy) deliberation, and some of the rulings themselves have come under fire as being unfairly skewed in favor of Trump and potentially dangerous. On Tuesday, Cannon provisionally denied special counsel Jack Smith's request to protect the safety of FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago by blocking Trump from making spurious claims that they, among other things, were instructed by President Joe Biden to use lethal force.
The FBI executed a "duly authorized search warrant that was approved by a magistrate judge" and done in coordination with Trump's secret service protection, pointed out MSNBC host and lawyer Katie Phang.
Cannon's rejection of a gag order "shows the same kind of cavalier disregard for law enforcement that caused Judge Cannon to be reversed not once, but twice, by the Eleventh Circuit when the case was just beginning," responded Andrew Weissmann, who served as lead prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller. "I really think this is outrageous conduct from somebody who took an oath of office as a judicial officer."
Smith could refile his request, sans "procedural issues," but Weissmann predicted that Cannon would ultimately deny the application anyway. "I think this will be taken up to the Eleventh Circuit," he said.
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