Trump Appointee Won't Preside Over Entire Documents Trial, Expert Says

Former President Trump’s critics groaned when they learned that Judge Aileen Cannon was listed on the summons for Trump’s appearance to face charges in federal court, Ben Adler, Yahoo News senior editor wrote.

Photo Insert: Cannon, a Trump appointee, made controversial rulings in Trump’s favor during the investigation into his personal possession of classified documents.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, made controversial rulings in Trump’s favor during the investigation into his personal possession of classified documents. Some observers fretted that Cannon would run Trump’s trial in a biased manner.

But some other experts cautioned that Cannon would not necessarily preside over the trial, arguing that she would either recuse herself or be reassigned by a higher court.

Federal trial judges are typically assigned at random, but Cannon was already assigned last year to preside over Trump’s lawsuit demanding a “special master” in an attempt to deny the FBI access to materials it had seized that Trump claimed were subject to executive privilege.

“If the case is being overseen by the same district and magistrate judges, that means the court likely considered the indictment to be ‘related’ to the search warrant and intentionally assigned it to those judges,” former senior Justice Department national security official Brandon Van Grack told ABC News.

“Cannon’s rulings on everything from procedural motions to Trump’s planned efforts to have the case thrown out before trial will have vast implications for the course of the case,” ABC News noted.

“Paul Rosenzweig, a former homeland security official in the George W. Bush administration and prosecutor in the independent counsel investigation of Bill Clinton, said it was egregious to block the Justice Department from steps like asking witnesses about government files, many marked as classified, that agents had already reviewed,” the New York Times reported.

Cannon’s decision was overturned by a unanimous three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

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