Classified documents judge defends more hearings after being accused of slow-walking Trump case

Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversees Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, has defended her decision to hold additional hearings in the case.

Cannon is seeking more evidence about the language in the FBI search warrant that was used to seize classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, she wrote in a court filing on Thursday. Trump’s lawyers have argued the language was vague, and Cannon agreed there were “ambiguities” in her latest filing.

Trump has been accused of willfully keeping classified documents at his private Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. When the FBI searched his estate, they found boxes of documents stored in a shower, a ballroom and his bedroom. He was indicted a year later on charges related to keeping the documents and thwarting government attempts to get them back. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges.

Cannon’s ruling comes just hours before the first presidential debate of 2024, where Trump’s legal battles are expected to be front and center.

open image in gallery

In her Thursday filing, Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020, also pushed back on special counsel Jack Smith, who “vigorously opposes” her call for another hearing, according to the filing.

Smith has previously called for Cannon to dismiss bids by Trump’s team over concerns that they will cause a “substantial delay.” Smith has also questioned her legal judgment, at one point saying one of her orders on the case was based on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise.”

“There is a difference between a resource-wasting and delay-producing ‘mini-trial,’ on the one hand, and an evidentiary hearing geared to adjudicating the contested factual and legal issues on a given pre-trial motion to suppress,” Cannon wrote on Thursday.

Smith has pushed for a faster timeline, proposing summer dates to make sure the trial begins before the November election. Trump’s team, meanwhile, has said it would be unfair to hold the trial before the election.

The trial was initially due to start on May 20 but Cannon postponed and has not set a future date for proceedings.

The Florida judge has also faced criticism from those outside the courtroom.

Michael van der Veen, an attorney who represented Trump in his second impeachment trial, said Cannon is drawing the trial out this week.

“The decisions aren’t coming quick enough,” he told CNN. He said Cannon is “playing right into the defense’s hands.”

Cannon was also privately urged to step aside from the case after she was assigned to it last year, The New York Times revealed last week. Two Florida judges with more experience reportedly told Cannon it would be best if she passed the case on to one of their colleagues.

open image in gallery

Cannon is also set to decided on whether Smith was legally assigned to the case after Trump’s attorneys argued he was unconstitutionally appointed and is acting without legal authority.

Trump is also preparing for a sentencing hearing after a Manhattan jury unanimously convicted him of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The former president will be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention, where he will be named the official GOP presidential nominee.