'Bizarre': Experts reveal how Trump’s lawyers went 'judge shopping' in the Mar-a-Lago documents case

After FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, August 8, former President Donald Trump was quick to rail against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and claim that that the federal government was way out of line. And Trump’s devotees in MAGA media outlets saw the search as proof that the “Deep State” never rests.

When Trump filed a lawsuit against the federal government, the case was assigned to a Trump-appointed federal judge: Aileen Cannon. Much to the chagrin of Trump’s critics, Cannon granted his request for a special master in the case. Cannon’s Trump-friendly rulings have drawn a great deal of criticism from Trump’s detractors in the legal world, and an article written by the Daily Beast’s José Pagliery and published on October 18 focuses on how she ended up being assigned to the case.

“Questions continue to swirl over how exactly Trump managed to get Cannon, who has shocked legal scholars by issuing mind-boggling orders that always favor Trump,” Pagliery explains. “She has temporarily halted the FBI investigation, appointed a ‘special master’ to slow down the probe, and kept the case far from its natural home in Washington, D.C.”

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According to Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, Trump’s legal team went “judge shopping.”

Levinson told the Beast, “They clearly made the correct calculation, because Judge Cannon’s rulings legally don’t make sense. They only make sense if you’re trying to help the former president.”

Some South Florida attorneys interviewed anonymously by the Beast find it odd that Trump’s legal team filed in person in the case instead of doing it electronically.

One of them commented, “I don’t know anybody who files in person.” Another attorney told the Beast, “I find it bizarre,” and a third said, “People don’t do this anymore. It’s extremely odd. I guess you could do this if you wanted to get a particular judge — or avoid getting a particular judge.”

READ MORE: Donald Trump tried and failed to file his racketeering suit against Hillary Clinton with Judge Aileen Cannon

According to Pagliery, “The Daily Beast contacted a court employee with direct knowledge of how the Trump lawsuit filing was handled, and this person said the case was placed into the federal court system’s automatic random judge ‘assignment wheel.’ (Angela E.) Noble, the head of that office, also said that the proper procedure was followed on their end — and that this is backed up by a log that ‘is not publicly available.’ She said the Trump lawsuit was placed on the West Palm Beach civil wheel, which consists of nine judges. Cannon is in a neighboring division, so she can occasionally get West Palm Beach cases.”

Pagliery continues, “Theoretically, that would give Trump a 1-in-9 chance of getting Cannon on the case. However, The Daily Beast analyzed new case assignments in West Palm Beach in the week preceding Trump’s lawsuit and found that Cannon actually got a much higher share, nine of the 29 new complaints — roughly a third of all cases. But the system still appears random.”

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