Category District Court Judge Aileen Cannon Pauses All Trial Deadlines in Florida

Jun 4 2024

Chief Justice for 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Tells Clerk to Trash All Further Complaints Against Judge Cannon and Make it Public


Posted originally on the CTH on June 3, 2024 | Sundance

When the extreme leftists cannot get their way by manipulating the legal system through Lawfare, they come unglued.

The tribal leadership of Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Andrew Weissmann and the larger Lawfare community have been waging an open media campaign against Florida Judge Aileen Cannon because in the Jack Smith documents case Judge Cannon is not giving them what they want.

It’s somewhat personal to the Lawfare crew because from the outset it has appeared that Eisen, McCord and Weissmann write the briefs and motions that Jack Smith files with the court.  If the Lawfare effort is being rejected, dismissed or diluted by Judge Cannon, the Lawfare tribe takes it personal and make appearances on leftist media networks, broadcasts and social media telling their followers to file judicial complaints against her.

In response to what the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals calls an “orchestrated campaign,” Chief Judge William Pryor of the 11th CCA has published a blistering order [SEE HERE], informing the clerk of the court not to accept any more complaints and to trash them.

[SOURCE pdf]

Making matters worse for the Lawfare pearl clutchers, Chief Justice Pryor tells the court’s clerk not to even respond to the complaints, just publish this order.  In the larger message the 11th CCA is essentially telling the Lawfare activists to knock it off, and this approach can have profoundly negative implications for Jack Smith’s ability to use the appeals court as a tool to target Judge Cannon.

“The Chief Judge for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is putting an official end to the THOUSANDS OF COORDINATED COMPLAINTS against Judge Aileen Cannon. Democrats are totally hysterical when they can’t control a courtroom (or a SC Justice like Alito).”  ~ Mark Mendlovitz

May 8 2024

Judge in Trump Classified Documents Case Suspends Trial Indefinitely


Posted originally on the CTH on May 7, 2024 | Sundance 

Judge Aileen Cannon has issued an order [SEE HERE] canceling the original trial date and suspending the trial proceedings pending resolution of multiple pre-trial issues.  Lawfare is big mad.

[Source]

(Via Politico) – […] The date had been widely expected to move amid a tangle of pretrial conflicts between special counsel Jack Smith and Trump’s attorneys. Smith had urged Judge Aileen Cannon to reschedule the trial to begin on July 8, but an order from the judge on Tuesday afternoon suggested that she is unlikely to even decide on a new trial date before late July.

[…] “[F]inalization of a trial date at this juncture — before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and [classified evidence] issues … would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions,” Cannon wrote in the five-page order.

That reshuffling further clouds the picture for Smith, who is also awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that could determine whether his other case against Trump — charges in Washington D.C. for attempting to subvert the 2020 election — can move forward this year. (read more) 

Nov 5 2023

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon Pauses All Trial Deadlines in Florida Documents Case


Posted originally on the CTH on November 4, 2023 | Sundance 

After several interesting hearings and court filings last week, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has indicated she is likely to postpone the trial schedule requested by Special Counsel Jack Smith due to the scope of material evidence and the need for defense attorneys to review slow production by the prosecution.

As noted by journalist Julie Kelly, who has attended the hearings, “On Friday morning, [Cannon] announced a stay, or suspension, of all pre-trial deadlines as she prepares a formal order to explain her thinking and very likely issue a new trial date.”

Bad News / Good News – Before getting to the great summary outline provided by Kelly, it is worth remembering one of the challenges in the case, which fortunately Judge Cannon has great familiarity with.

You might remember when the issue of defining “classified documents” surfaced, Judge Cannon appointed a “special master” to review the documents and make determinations.  The prosecution filed an appeal to that approach and won within the 11th Circuit based on an outlook the Jack Smith team is relying on.

Essentially the appellate court ruled on the DOJ calling the material “classified” and “vital to national security”, by saying in the court’s determination they have no authority to question the decision of the executive branch when it comes to matters of national security. {Go Deep}

[Source]

The appellate court (judicial branch) stated they defer to the DOJ (executive branch) as to any/all claims of harm to national security that may be caused by a review of documents the DOJ-NSD determine, on their own authority, to be identified as classified (sensitive, secret or top-secret).  Therefore, if the DOJ states sharing the “classified documents” with a special master may harm national security, the court must accept that position without challenge.

The Trump legal team did not appeal this 11th Circuit Appeals Court ruling for valid reasons.

The Supreme Court would not want to touch the issue of “classified documents” and/or how they are defined by the agencies in the Executive Branch.  Any review of definitions by the executive could be interpreted as interfering in the plenary power of the Executive Branch to make decisions about national security.

To take up the issue would be to create consequences putting the Supreme Court in the middle of any classification argument beyond the Trump case.  Think about FOIA requests denied due to “National Security” or classification status.

If the Supreme Court interjected in the debate between President Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith, they would be stepping into an argument within the Executive Branch.  This could be perceived as setting precedent for any denied FOIA lawsuit to appeal directly to SCOTUS, and that would create an entire apparatus of the High Court now being the arbiter of what is “classified intelligence” and what is not.   This exceeds their constitutional limitations and separation.

If the executive branch wants to call the dinner menu between President Trump and Chairman Xi a classified document in the interests of national security, they can.  The Supreme Court is not going to step in and be the arbiter to determine validity of the classification status.

This outlook of the judicial branch plays into the hands of Special Counsel Jack Smith and the unprecedented Lawfare approach.

Jack Smith (Weissmann/Eisen) knows the High Court doesn’t want to get involved in an “inside executive” dispute, not on this granular stuff.  So, he is leveraging the ability of the current politics within the executive to his advantage.  Essentially, the executive rules are whatever the current executive says they are.

That brings us to last week, and Judge Aileen Cannon who can clearly see the approach Jack Smith is taking.   Julie Kelly has a great summary of the week in the Florida court:

Julie Kelly – […] “The games already have begun. For example, Trump this week filed a motion at the appellate court in D.C. seeking an emergency stay (or hold) on Chutkan’s broad gag order. If the appellate court, stacked with Obama appointees, ultimately denies the request, Trump’s team signaled they are prepared to seek immediate relief at the Supreme Court. (Late Friday, a three-judge panel issued a temporary hold and expedited Trump’s appeal on the matter.)

Defense motions to dismiss the January 6 indictment based on selective prosecution and overall unconstitutionality now sit on Chutkan’s desk—requests she presumably will deny, prompting another wave of appeals. One can only imagine the coming fight over jury selection, which will commence on February 9 when potential jurors in D.C. are asked to complete questionnaires about their knowledge of the case.

In addition to the logical difficulties in viewing classified evidence in the documents case—which also involve tight restrictions under the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA, and numerous hearings—the amount of discovery in the matter is “exceedingly voluminous,” Cannon wrote in July. She did not exaggerate.

DOJ so far has turned over at least 1.3 million pages of unclassified and 5,500 pages of classified records, far more than Smith’s office initially claimed. Further, roughly 60 terabytes of video footage recorded by security cameras at Mar-a-Lago must be reviewed by defense attorneys to track the movement of dozens of boxes, the basis of Smith’s obstruction charges. Both sides debated on Wednesday whether the amount of footage represented the equivalent of five years (Smith) or ten years (Trump) since the archive includes video captured by multiple cameras stationed throughout the property over the course of several months.

Team Trump also accuses Smith’s team of violating discovery deadlines, an allegation Bratt seemed to acknowledge when he admitted to the judge that the government made a discovery production as late as last week. (READ MORE)

I strongly suggest reading the full article presented by Kelly above.

President Trump’s legal position is very strong in the Florida documents case.

As we noted from the outset, and entirely different from what traditional pundits were saying at the time, the Mar-a-Lago documents case is the weakest case Jack Smith’s Lawfare crew have assembled.   Additionally, the judge in Florida is indicating she can see through the Lawfare schemes of the prosecution – and she doesn’t like it.