Cannon 'sends a message' to Trump by blocking report she has 'no power over': ex-federal prosecutor

08 January

On Tuesday, January 7, Aileen Cannon — the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge assigned to the Mar-a-Lago documents case — blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith's final report on his Trump-related prosecutions. Smith is planning to resign as special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) before President-elect Trump's inauguration, but he is hoping to release the report on the way out.

University of Baltimore law professor and former federal prosecutor Kimberly Wehle offers a scathing critique of Cannon's ruling in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark the following day.

"Her decision to jump in when the (11th Circuit) Appeals Court already has it covered signals bias, which on her part, is already well-established," Wehle argues. "Moreover, the underlying criminal indictment….. is already on appeal to the 11th Circuit. What that means is that jurisdiction over the case is no longer with Cannon. It was transferred to the appeals court, so she has no power over the report."

Wehle continues, "Although there are exceptions to the rule that jurisdiction lies in only one court at a time, Cannon doesn't bother to cite any authority justifying her three-page order ignoring the general rule. Given that the 11th Circuit will decide this matter anyway, her intervention appears designed more than anything else to send a message of loyalty to the president-elect."

The former federal prosecutor stresses that with Trump and his allies, the "end game here is, as it has ever been, delay."

"All Trump needs is for the courts to glom up the gears for a dozen more days," Wehle warns. "Once he has been inaugurated, Smith's report will meet its fate in the dustbin of history, where it will stay for generations — if not forever. If the 11th Circuit sides with DOJ, Trump will appeal to his sympathetic Supreme Court majority. If they take the case, there is no way it will be resolved before January 20, putting the justices in the untenable position of knowing that if they later greenlight the report's release, Trump could just refuse to abide by their ruling."

Wehle adds, "Jack Smith and Merrick Garland should do whatever they can to get Smith's final report, or reports, published as quickly as possible. And if there's any risk that Trump might attempt to go after Smith and Garland for disobeying Cannon's order, seeking to hold them in contempt of court, President Joe Biden should pardon them preemptively."

Kimberly Wehle's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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