Judge Cannon gives Jack Smith a 'fresh opening to seek her removal' from Trump docs case

28 March 2024

Florida-based Aileen Cannon, the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge assigned to special counsel Jack Smith's Mar-a-Lago documents prosecution, has been a frequent source of frustration to Trump's critics — some of whom believe she has done everything possible to delay the case and keep it from going to trial.

One of those critics, political and legal blogger Philip Rotner, has been warning that Smith's prosecution won't survive if he doesn't take steps to get Cannon removed from it.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on March 28, Rotner argues that Cannon has given Smith "a gift that he desperately needed" in the form of "a fresh opening to seek her removal from the case."

"Last week," Rotner writes, "Judge Aileen Cannon ordered defense lawyers and prosecutors to propose jury instructions based on two scenarios, 'each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case,' as the Washington Post explained. Trump's lawyers have argued that the Presidential Records Act gives Trump the right to determine that highly classified documents relating to national defense are 'personal' records. Both of the 'competing' jury instructions Cannon ordered the parties to submit take that preposterous argument seriously: one would flat-out adopt it, and the other would let the jury decide."

Rotner adds, "In the words of former federal Judge Nancy Gertner, Cannon 'is giving credence to arguments that are on their face absurd.'"

Cannon, the political/legal blogger laments, has made "a series of bizarre, legally inexplicable pro-Trump orders" in Smith's case" — and continues to undermine it.

"If Smith wants to save his case," Rotner warns, "he has little choice: He must seek Cannon's removal. Disqualifying a federal district judge from a case is not easy, but it can be done…. In short, Smith has a path to remove Cannon from the case, albeit not an easy one."

Rotner, who covers legal and political topics on his PhilipRotner.com website, continues, "If he's going to take that path, he has to act soon. It's too risky for him to wait for Judge Cannon's next oddball order."

Philip Rotner's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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