- Trump’s trial to be supervised by Trump-appointed Judge
- Judge Cannon will be the final arbiter in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump
by LaBode Obanor
It seems quite incongruous that a Trump appointee, Judge Aileen Cannon who is among about a dozen or so judges seating at the District Court for the Southern District of Florida was randomly assigned, twice, to Donald Trump’s criminal cases. She was initially asked in August 2022 in Donald J. Trump v. United States of America (case no. 22-81294-CIV-CANNON) to oversee Trump‘s challenge in the case involving boxes of government secrets seized by the FBI during the raid of the formal president’s Mar–a– Lago clubhouse. Praying that a special master should be appointed to review the materials retrieved, the claim was that some of the documents gained by the federal agents were subject to attorney–client or executive privilege.
We recall that Judge Cannon ruled in favor of Trump against the government. Her ruling was so brazenly odd that many legal experts saw it outlandish and sensed bias. Even Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, called are decision “deeply flawed.” The Department of Justice (D.O.J.) quickly appealed that decision to the Eleventh Circuit, the court overseeing Judge Cannon’s rulings. The judges in the appeal court, the majority of whom were also appointed by Donald Trump, sided with DOJ and overturned Cannon.
As part of that case, Judge Cannon also showed an unusual solicitude to Trump when she barred federal prosecutors and agents from inspecting the trove of documents they secured and also made a ridiculous legal argument that “the rules don’t apply to Trump in large part because, as a former president, he faces reputational harm that is of a decidedly different order of magnitude than that facing another person who may be indicted.” Put differently, Judge Cannon believes that the rules (which all Americans follow and abide by) should not apply to Donald Trump – simply because he was a former president.
Such faulty Judicial reasoning is not only an affront to America‘s jurisprudence but makes a mockery of the phrase “Equal Justice under the Law”. Her order was eventually thrown out in a scathing judgment by the Eleventh Circuit which found she had overstepped.
Now, in the most consequential case in U.S. history involving the criminal trial of a former president, Judge Cannon has again been assigned to preside over a case involving Donald Trump in Miami Federal District Court. What are the odds that Judge Cannon is repeatedly picked? What about the need for fairness in the process used for this random selection? Is her selection indeed random or intentional? How can a hardened Trump supporter, handpicked by Trump for her current role, and who has displayed multiple times her tendency to be unfair, defective, and unsound in decision-making be positioned to supervise a trial that will decide Trump’s freedom?
To be clear, Judge Cannon cannot be trusted to administer fair and impartial supervision even though Trump will be facing a jury or his peers. This is nothing but a classic case of putting a fox on the jury at a goose’s trial.
When it comes to using delay tactics such as throwing impediments to stall the process which Trump is notorious for, past actions of Judge Cannon indicate that she could side with Trump’s lawyers and unnecessarily hold up the case. If so, this will well dither the fair adjudication way into the 2024 election cycle and beyond, ultimately in favor of Donald Trump.
When it comes to the selection of the jury, determining whether a biased Trump supporter is picked as a juror, this roguish and warped Judge will be supervising this process. Her past decisions show that She is likely to stark the jury with conservative Trump loyalists. It is pertinent to note that out of 12 jurors, all it takes to get Trump acquitted is one sympathetic juror to vote no to conviction and Trump walks home a free man
When it comes to admitting documents into evidence or what evidence or witness a jury can see and hear from, Judge Cannon will be the final arbiter. She will decide what the jury can use to convict or acquit Trump.
I would not want to test that hypothesis because it is quite palpable how she would rule.
And finally, in the face of overwhelming evidence and in the likely scenario that Trump is found guilty, Judge Cannon could unduly interfere with the sentencing and go below the guidelines affording Trump undue leniency. After all, she is the same judge that made an erroneous judgment stating that Trump is entitled to special treatment that applies virtually to no other criminal defendant.
Judge Cannon has proven herself to be unprincipled and disreputable. Her bench rulings when it comes to Trump have been a train wreck of judicial reasoning making her wholly unfit to oversee the case of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump.
She should immediately recuse herself from the case citing an appearance of bias.
If she doesn’t, all indices showed that the federalprosecutors have their work cut out for them going against a prejudicial situation in a Judge with a natural affinity to Donald Trump, they must nonetheless be proactive and anticipate that the decks are stacked against them.
Because this case has all the impetus to test America’s political and social fabric including the fairness of its jurisprudence, Jack Smith (the special counsel) and the prosecutors at the DOJ should immediately ask a higher court to remove Judge Cannon from the case, or be ready to oscillate between the Eleventh Circuit and the District Court until a verdict is reached. Opting for the latter could wreck the case against Donald Trump – A case the country cannot afford to mangle.
Email: JlaBode74@gmail.com
Twitter: @Obanor
