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According to the summons sent to ex-US President Donald Trump on Thursday, US District Judge Aileen Cannon will be assigned to this case. According to former prosecutors, Trump might turn on the judge if she doesn't side with him in the case. Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor stated that Trump would criticize anybody who doesn't act according to him.
On Thursday, the former president was indicted of manhandling government records from the White House, and bringing them to his Florida resort. He currently faces 37 charges in connection to the case, as per NBC News.
Prosecutors believe that this sudden appointment of 42-year-old Judge Aileen Cannon to the case might be a drawback for them. According to them, the drawback might persist even after they have presented a detailed set of evidence against Trump on Friday.
Trump nominated Aileen Cannon as a federal judge in 2020
Judge Cannon, born in Cali, Colombia, attended Duke University and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. She was employed in the Washington office of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, from 2009 to 2012. She then worked as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of Florida, which also includes Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon has also been a part of the conservative Federalist Society since 2005. In 2018, she was on the prosecution team that won a case involving Mutual Benefits Corporation's ex-lawyer Anthony Livoti Jr.
Back in 2020, then-president Donald Trump nominated Aileen Cannon as a federal judge. On Thursday, Cannon was appointed to oversee the case against Trump where he faces around 37 charges. The sudden appointment has been worrisome for the prosecutors, as they believe it can hamper their arguments in the case. This appointment has shocked several legal personalities all over the country.
Federal prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig said:
“If this were a normal person and a normal case, you’d be talking to your client about pleading guilty. So, I think the Cannon draw is actually a serious blow to the prosecution.”
Among the 37 charges that the ex-president faces, 31 are in violation of the Espionage Act, and the other accusations include making false statements. Prosecutors mentioned that Judge Aileen Cannon has a lot of opportunities to change the outcome of the case. However, it is not yet confirmed for how long Cannon will oversee the case.
As per Vanity Fair, Samuel Buell, a white-collar criminal law professor at Duke University said:
“When you have classified documents, there are abundant opportunities to slow this down, and if they’ve got a judge who is willing to go along with slowing this down, it becomes very hard to predict when this will go to trial.”
Former senior Justice Department national security official Brandon Van Grack told ABC News:
“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.”
Judge Aileen Cannon earlier sided with the ex-president when he made an unusual request to review the materials seized during the raid Mar-a-Lago case last August, as per Business Insider. Cannon was severely bashed for her ruling by several legal experts at the time.
