Judge Aileen Cannon is running out of gas
Judge Aileen Cannon keeps testing Special Counsel Jack Smith. This time, it’s the ridiculous order she executed, requiring that the parties provide jury charges, even though we’re not even close to having a jury seated. It certainly appears as if she is trying to stack the deck in Donald Trump’s favor. In response to that Order, Smith made a filing Tuesday in which he told Cannon that her ruling is based on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise.” He argued that the request was wrong, that it would distort the trial, and could potentially lead to a directed verdict for Trump. This woman knows nothing about the law, nor does she know anything about how a judge is supposed to direct a case. A judge is supposed to approve jury instructions-based on the law-not write them for the parties.
How are jurors supposed to interpret the Presidential Records Act if the judge doesn’t even understand it? She wants the jury to review the (classified) records Trump took and declare them either “personal” or “presidential” under the Act. That was her request. Most lay people know very little about the law, and this isn’t even legitimate law. It is the judge’s place to guide them. That’s not what Cannon is doing. She’s skewing the law so that the jurors will rule in a certain way. As others have previously said, she not only needs to be removed from this case, but she also needs to be removed from the federal bench. She further opined that under the Act, “presidents have the sole authority to lawfully retain documents at the end of their term by declaring them as ‘personal’ or ‘presidential.'” Not true. The Act requires that all presidential documents move under the domain of the National Archives, period. It says nothing about a president “deciding.” Smith asked Cannon to rethink whether her ruling is “a correct formulation of the law.” He further indicated that he would appeal the judge’s ruling if it doesn’t change.
The Act allows a president to keep only personal records, which are documents that contain “highly personal information, such as diaries, journals, and medical records.” What Trump took fits into none of those categories except for, perhaps, medical records. There is no question that Trump had a right to take only those documents, and Cannon should know that. He did not have the right to take national secrets. Cannon might want to think about what Smith is trying to tell her. She doesn’t want to go before the Eleventh Circuit again. They’ve already overruled her several times. They will certainly overrule this nonsense.
Cannon is supposed to be an officer of the court. She should know most of the law by heart. Her position does not empower her to twist the facts or to set up a trial such that a guilty defendant goes free because she feels indebted to him. She tried to look above board by denying his motion to dismiss, but she might as well have granted it with the tricks she’s playing now.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years