Judge Aileen Cannon called out for wasting time on Trump’s 'frivolous' pleadings

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance called out Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon by comparing her performance so far to the performance of Georgia State Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the racketeering charges filed against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants in Georgia.

On her Substack platform, Vance wrote that McAfee is doing a stellar job handling filings both from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and from lawyers representing several of the co-conspirators charged with attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election results.

Vance argued that McAfee "has been impressive, in a quiet, competent sort of way, ever since the Fulton County case was first assigned to him," and then added that "we were able to scrutinize his courtroom behavior in a way we could not observe Judge Cannon’s, because the state case, by McAfee’s order, is being televised... the Judge was courteous to both sides, and seemed fair-minded, up to speed on the law, and unafraid to rule promptly."

In contrast, she noted that Cannon has spent too much time giving consideration to "frivolous" filings by the former president's legal team, which is fending off allegations of obstruction of justice related to stolen government documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.

According to Vance, she tried to keep an open mind about the Trump-appointed Cannon when she was assigned the case, but her faith was misplaced.

"The case was assigned to Judge Cannon, who treated Trump’s frivolous lawsuit seriously and with deference until the Eleventh Circuit told her, in no uncertain terms, that she had no jurisdiction to proceed and ordered the case dismissed," she wrote before adding, "When Cannon first drew that case, there was a lot of criticism about the fact that she was handling it even though she was a Trump appointee."

She then added, "Initially, I wasn’t concerned. I even made the argument that every federal judge gets that gig because they’re appointed by a president from one party or the other, and there was no reason for us to be critical of her before observing how she would handle the case. Of course, I was wrong to be optimistic in that case."

Turning back to McAfee in Georgia, she added, "We may not always like every call he makes as the trial proceeds, but what matters here is competence and understanding of the law and trial procedure. This judge clearly gets it. That’s a very good thing in a case of this complexity and importance."

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