CNN
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Choose Aileen Cannon had been on the federal bench for little greater than a yr when a senior choose supplied to preside over certainly one of her first prison trials in her remoted south Florida courthouse.
“It’s very lonely,” Senior Choose Paul C. Huck informed CNN of Fort Pierce, a small fishing and citrus neighborhood on the sting of the Southern District of Florida the place Cannon is the one federal choose. “It’s a reasonably sleepy city with a reasonably sleepy courtroom.”
Huck finally presided over the March 2022 prison trial – not as a result of Cannon wanted assist, he stated, however as a result of he enjoys volunteering for trials in courts throughout Florida.
“I assumed I’d go up there and simply spend a while together with her and get to know her higher,” Huck stated of Cannon, whom he recalled as “very sensible” and “very personable.”
Two years later, Cannon is now presiding over one of the consequential and sophisticated circumstances in America: the prison prosecution of former president Donald Trump over his dealing with of the nation’s secrets and techniques. And she or he’s attracting nationwide scrutiny for the way she’s approached the case.
Since Trump was first indicted a yr in the past, Cannon has dragged out the proceedings in ways in which have flummoxed authorized students and put a trial initially scheduled to start final month on hold indefinitely.
A number of attorneys who’ve practiced in entrance of Cannon – and who spoke to CNN for this story – pointed to her isolation as one rationalization for her conduct. Cannon’s solitary submit within the Fort Pierce courthouse, one which hardly ever sees high-profile motion, deprives her of the casual, day-to-day interactions with extra seasoned judges who sit on the different courthouses and will provide her recommendation, the legal professionals informed CNN.
Additionally they stated Cannon’s lack of trial expertise, each as a lawyer and a choose, is obvious. In her seven years as a Justice Division legal professional, Cannon participated on the trial groups of simply 4 prison circumstances. And on the bench, she’s solely presided over a handful of prison trials – and Huck took over certainly one of them.
For this account of Cannon’s judicial demeanor, CNN spoke to 10 attorneys who’ve had circumstances – each prison and civil – earlier than her. The legal professionals spoke to CNN on the situation of anonymity due to the skilled and moral dangers of chatting with press a few sitting federal choose in entrance of whom they follow.
To corroborate their characterizations of Cannon’s strategy, CNN reviewed the general public dockets of scores of circumstances which have traveled by way of her courtroom.
The attorneys described Cannon as extraordinarily diligent and properly ready, a tricky questioner who accepts nothing at face worth, and considerate in her rulings. However additionally they stated that a few of her habits which have raised eyebrows in Trump’s case have plagued her strategy from the bench extra usually.
These tendencies embrace a penchant for letting irrelevant authorized questions distract from core points, a zero-tolerance strategy to any technical defects in filings, and a battle with docket administration that permits the kind of pretrial disputes that different judges would resolve in weeks go unresolved for months.
“She isn’t environment friendly,” stated one legal professional who practices in south Florida. “She could be very type over substance.”
One other legal professional described her as “indecisive.”
A 3rd legal professional who’s had circumstances earlier than Cannon stated, “She simply appears overwhelmed by the method.”
5 months after Huck visited Cannon in Fort Pierce, she was thrust into the middle of back-to-back authorized hurricanes. First, she oversaw the lawsuit Trump introduced difficult the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago residence that August, when brokers discovered a whole lot of categorized paperwork scattered concerning the property. (Cannon granted Trump’s request for a third-party evaluation of the search, only to see her rulings reversed by a conservative appeals courtroom.)
Then, in a accident final June, Cannon was assigned the prison case through which Trump is charged with 40 felony counts of allegedly mishandling categorized paperwork and obstructing the federal government’s makes an attempt to seek out them.
The high-profile nationwide safety case is a dramatic departure from a lot of the different prison circumstances taking part in out in Cannon’s courtroom, the majority of that are extra mundane prosecutions like gun expenses or immigration infractions which can be usually resolved by way of responsible pleas, a CNN evaluation of her case log confirmed.
Cannon’s task to the paperwork case was a sport of odds. Although the costs had been filed in West Palm Seashore, the division that’s residence to Mar-a-Lago, Cannon was randomly chosen from a broader pool of judges in Florida’s southern district.
Her strategy as a jurist – detail-obsessed to the purpose of tedious – seems uniquely vulnerable to being exploited by a protection group wanting to delay the case. And the sophisticated system Cannon has arrange for redacting public filings has solely exacerbated a backlog of unresolved points.
She nonetheless has not determined foundational questions that may decide whether or not the Trump case will go to trial. Marginal points litter her docket, together with a longshot movement to invalidate Jack Smith’s appointment as particular counsel that she’s scheduled a hearing on later this month.
Some attorneys who’ve practiced earlier than Cannon chalked up her battle dealing with the sensible logistics of being a trial courtroom choose to her background of principally appellate work for the native US Legal professional’s workplace. They described her as latching onto summary, tutorial questions on the expense of the kind of on-the-fly decision-making required by trial judges that retains litigation transferring alongside.
As Cannon slowly plods by way of the backlog of points on her plate, particular counsel prosecutors at the moment are studying firsthand the wrath that they’ll incur from the choose for seemingly minor discrepancies of their filings, they usually have drawn Cannon’s ire for pushing her to maneuver extra shortly to resolve the substantive pretrial points which have slowed the tempo of the case to a crawl.
“You possibly can’t actually take subject together with her, in any other case it’s going to work towards you,” a fourth legal professional who has practiced earlier than Cannon stated.
Trump’s attorneys have additionally attracted warmth from Cannon, although far much less usually than the particular counsel.
Protection attorneys CNN spoke to described Cannon as a choose who offers minimal deference to defendants and as a “notoriously” robust sentencer. To that finish, the lengthy leash she’s given the Trump group within the pretrial section of the case has struck a chord with them.
“She’s actually not sympathetic to most defendants, and she or he’s actually taking part in a special sport with the present defendant earlier than her,” one other lawyer informed CNN, in reference to Trump.
Not each legal professional who spoke to CNN about their expertise in entrance of Cannon was essential. Some praised her for asking questions at hearings that confirmed she had achieved her analysis and stated that she moved their circumstances alongside at an inexpensive tempo.
Veterans of her courtroom broadly agreed on one facet of Cannon’s judicial strategy: that legal professionals ought to anticipate her to sharply probe any and all assertions made in her courtroom, regardless of the social gathering, with a resistance to taking anybody at their phrase.
“She doesn’t like several litigant to inform her what she needs to be doing,” one of many attorneys stated.
Many recalled her rejecting joint motions – equivalent to sentencing suggestions or requests to delay proceedings – though there was no dispute between the 2 sides.
“You possibly can’t assume that simply because there’s settlement between the events that she’s going to go alongside,” one of many attorneys stated, whereas describing her as an “extremely fingers on” choose “who desires to be the decision-maker of every thing.”
Felony protection attorneys who follow in entrance of Cannon admire that, regardless of being a former Justice Division legal professional, she doesn’t defer robotically to the assertions of prosecutors, chopping towards the stereotype of judges at all times erring on the facet of the federal government.
“She doesn’t like the federal government to come back in and play bully, steamroller,” one of many attorneys stated.
Within the Trump case, Cannon has repeatedly taken Smith’s attorneys to activity for utilizing broad generalizations to again up their requests – a follow that prosecutors can get away with in different courts – and demanding excessive specificity in no matter prosecutors are asking her for.
Her intense scrutiny extends as to if attorneys are following granular procedural guidelines about the right way to file submissions to her courtroom. Final month, such deficiencies prompted Cannon to rebuff a gag order request Smith filed after Trump falsely claimed the FBI had a plan to assassinate him through the Mar-a-Lago search.
She did so as a result of she discovered the prosecutors had run afoul of native guidelines requiring them to offer the opposing facet ample time to seek the advice of with them on the request. On different events in Trump’s case, she has rejected even routine filings for minor technicalities.
The follow is mirrored in a number of courtroom dockets reviewed by CNN, together with not less than two different examples the place Cannon denied motions as a result of she stated legal professionals did not appropriately seek advice from each other.
One of many attorneys who spoke to CNN described Cannon’s strategy to policing procedural guidelines as, “I resolve the way in which it’s going to be, and should you don’t wish to do it the way in which I let you know, that’s an issue.”
Attorneys identified that she isn’t the one choose on the federal bench who offers no leeway for even probably the most minor of procedural errors, however some stated that her fixation on technicalities led circumstances to get slowed down in trivialities.
Within the Trump case, it took almost three months for a number of main pretrial motions to even be docketed after the cumbersome means of litigating what could be redacted within the public filings. Seven of these requests, which search to throw out elements of the case, stay undecided, and oral arguments have been scheduled on just some thus far.
And Cannon nonetheless has to deal with all the opposite circumstances taking part in out within the Fort Pierce division whereas she navigates the Trump case.
Cannon has repeatedly hauled the legal professionals in Trump’s case in for hearings on pretrial disputes within the categorized paperwork case – a number of of which authorized consultants say seem tangential and even irrelevant.
The Florida attorneys CNN spoke to acknowledged that it’s comprehensible for a brand new choose to carry hearings on points extra skilled judges may be extra comfy in coping with, and they didn’t fault her for being particularly thorough within the extremely excessive stakes Trump case.
Nonetheless, Cannon has requested questions within the Trump case that seem out of left subject.
In March, for instance, Cannon ordered attorneys to draft jury directions that contemplate the Presidential Information Act, the federal regulation that requires an outgoing president to return authorities information to the Nationwide Archives on the finish of their administration.
Exterior consultants and the particular counsel’s workplace lambasted the request as each procedurally untimely and legally unsound for the way it entertained a fringe concept from the Trump group. Cannon testily defended the train as a “real try” to know the events’ positions.
Her orientation towards such authorized rabbit holes isn’t distinct to the Trump case, veterans of her courtroom say.
“She appears to grab on ideas that for one cause or one other change into attention-grabbing to her whether or not or not they’re pertinent to the case at hand – or resolve that they’ve significance for causes that escape the remainder of the events within the courtroom room,” one of many attorneys stated.
Her lack of trial expertise earlier than her appointment stands out among the many different judges confirmed to the south Florida federal courtroom underneath the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations – all of whom had both in depth trial expertise as state courtroom judges or had tried 10 or extra circumstances as legal professionals earlier than their nomination to the federal bench. Some attorneys say they’ve been involved her choices have made it extra doubtless their circumstances could be appealed.
One legal professional informed CNN that if he has a case that’s assigned to Cannon, he asks the opposing social gathering whether or not they’d consent to permitting the circumstances to be dealt with by a Justice of the Peace choose, a sort of choose that doesn’t have all the facility of US district choose however can deal with some sorts of proceedings.
In the end, almost each legal professional CNN spoke to stated that Cannon, regardless of the criticism, is unwavering in her beliefs about how every case in her courtroom ought to proceed.
As one legal professional put it: “She thinks what she’s doing is appropriate.”