Treading soft but firm. This is Aileen Cannon, the judge in charge of the federal criminal trial of former President Donald Trump, because she is aware that her impartiality is under such a gigantic and powerful political magnifying glass in the United States.
Born in Cali (Colombia), with 14 years of practice as a lawyer, the last two and a half serving as a judge of the Court of the Southern District of Florida, a position to which she arrived by nomination of the then president Donald Trump, she is today who is in charge of the process against him for the alleged mishandling and management of classified documents when he left the White House.
Of Hispanic origin, not only because of her birthplace but because her mother is a Cuban exile, -her father is North American- she is a staunch conservative who, at 41 years old and without looking for it, has the eyes of both Republicans and Democrats upon her. and independent because of the challenge she faces: judging the former Republican president who appointed her to her current position two years ago.
And although the verdict is not decided by her, but by the jury that is defined for the trial, her performance is influential and decisive in the process.
In this order of ideas and in compliance with his duties as a judge, Cannon has already made the first decision in the controversial trial for the government documents that the former president kept at his residence in Mar-a-Lago. Thus, he issued resolutions instructing the lawyers, both for Trump and for the other investigated, his collaborator Walt Nauta, to request security authorizations from the Department of Justice, a requirement to have access to classified documents.
The defense team is incomplete due to the departure of some of them days before the imputation of federal charges against Trump, which is why he not only urged him to expedite the aforementioned process, which will apply – as he made explicit – to any ‘ ‘next member’ of that group.
Likewise, I set the deadline for next Tuesday (June 20) for them to notify you in writing of compliance with said instructions.
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The security authorizations are a first and insurmountable step so that the law bureau has full knowledge of the quantity, quality, and scope of the classified documents that were seized by the FBI in the raid that it carried out at the residence of the former president.
A fact sheet from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts notes that the The Department of Justice’s Litigation Security Group grants these authorizations so that the lawyers participating in the trial can know the information classified as classified or secret.
If the lawyers do not have the required security clearances, then the Litigation Security Group “may initiate the appropriate background investigation with the FBI to determine if the lawyer can be cleared to access classified information.”
According to newspaper publication The Country, p.To make its case, the government will likely have to share key aspects of those documents with Trump and his legal team. Some may also be declassified and released publicly as part of the prosecution, although the Justice Department has not signaled any immediate intention to do so.
The same newspaper confirmed on Friday that two members of Trump’s defense team, Todd Blanche and Chris Kise, contacted the Department of Justice to obtain the aforementioned authorizations.
Experts stressed that Judge Cannon’s order adds further pressure for the former president, who is required to include a Florida-certified lawyer on his team, as required by state law.
Pending your management
As we pointed out, the Cali-born judge will not only oversee the federal trial of the former president, but will also have great influence on the proceedings, with a date yet to be defined. The start of it will depend, in large part, on the efficiency with which Cannon manages his schedule.
In the midst of the campaign for the Republican nomination, in which Trump is the favourite, the growing perception that the trial against him is politically motivated, that it is the Democratic intention to prevent his candidacy and with the risk that, in the scenario In 2024, facing candidate-president Joe Biden at the polls, the Republican will once again be the tenant of the White House, this trial has generated everything from outrage and controversy to great expectations.
“Judging someone who gave you your job would be difficult for everyone,” says Wendy Schiller, a professor of public policy at Brown University, adding that when the defendant insistently argues that he is the victim of a ‘witch hunt, “That tells the judge that you are under constant surveillance.”
Will Aileen Cannon be able to resist these pressures? That is the question that is in the air and, obviously, those who want to see Trump sentenced doubt it, with various arguments, while those who consider that he should be acquitted not only trust in the impartiality of the judge, but also hope that the justice acts promptly, in the same sense, against Biden, who was also found hundreds of classified papers in several of his offices and residences, dating from his work as Obama’s vice president.
Anti-Trumpists argue that Cannon has little experience as a magistrate, since she assumed her current tenure position less than three years ago, after the Senate confirmed her with 56 votes in favor, twelve of them from Democratic parliamentarians, considering her academic excellence and good management in previous positions.
Since then, he has been in charge of four criminal trials that, due to not having the importance and complexity of the current one, were completed in a few days.
It’s worth remembering that Cannon earned his bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 2003 and his juris doctorate, with great praisefrom the University of Michigan Law School in 2007. During her law studies, she was inducted into the Order of the Coif, which is the honor society for law school graduates in the United States.
After that, he served a year as a clerk to Judge Steven Colloton on the 8th Court of Appeals. United States Circuit, 2009 to 2012 as Associate Counsel at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP and then, until 2020, as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Thomas Holbrook, a professor of Political Science at Wisconsin, says that another of the doubts that is generated about the impartiality of the judge is that “she is very conservative.”
Cannon is a member of the Federalist Society, a prominent organization in legal circles that is favored by elected Republicans and advocates a literal reading of the Constitution.
But above all, Holbrook recalls, because he has shown great deference to Trump.
After the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida in August 2022, the former president took legal action to prevent prosecutors from using the seized documents.
The judge had inherited the case and agreed with him, in part, citing “extraordinary circumstances” related to “his former position as President of the United States.”
It was then overruled by three judges on his court in an unusually critical tone: “While having a search warrant for the home of a former president is truly extraordinary, it should in no way affect our legal analysis,” he wrote.
What will define
None of this would matter much if the judge only had a ceremonial role, but that is far from it.
“Even in routine cases, judges have significant and sometimes decisive influence on the proceedings,” says Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor.
Specifically, Cannon will decide in particular what material evidence can be presented to the jurors. She will also set the schedule for the preliminary hearings and trial, which could be postponed until well after the November 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is a candidate.
According to Richman, “even an experienced judge would find it difficult to push for the trial to be held before the election.”
Lastly, he will oversee the selection of the juries, who must deliver a unanimous verdict.
Whatever she does, she will eventually be vilified, Holbrook says.
“As soon as she speaks out against the former president, it will no longer matter that he named her and she will be considered a traitor” by the Republican’s candidates, she says. “Conversely, if it rules in favor of Trump, it will feed the idea that the judiciary is corrupt.”