MIAMI (AP) – A month after former President Donald Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents, the judge presiding over the case will play a more visible role as he weighs opposing requests for a trial date and hears arguments this week in a procedural but potentially crucial area of law.
A pretrial conference Tuesday to discuss procedures for handling classified information will represent the first courtroom arguments in the case before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon since Trump was indicted five weeks ago. The arguments could provide insight into how Cannon intends to preside over the case while also grappling with the unresolved question of how to schedule Trump’s trial as he campaigns for the presidency.
These issues would be closely watched in any trial involving a former president. But Cannon could face additional scrutiny in light of a widely dissected ruling he issued last year that granted the Trump team’s request for a special master to conduct an independent review of the shipments of classified records removed by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago. property. A three-judge federal appeals panel overturned his order and reprimanded Cannon for a decision it said he did not have the legal authority to make in the first place.
Cannon’s ruling, in a lawsuit Trump filed against the Justice Department, drew criticism from legal experts who said it was too favorable to the former president. It also drew public attention to her limited experience as a judge, particularly in highly sensitive national security matters, given that Trump appointed her to the bench just three years ago.
Still, some Florida lawyers say there’s no question, such as the judge assigned to Trump’s criminal case, that he is aware of the most politically explosive federal prosecutor’s gamble in recent memory.
“She’s not going to want to do anything but go by the book. The challenge is there’s never been a book like this,” said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami who served on the advisory committee that reviewed the Cannon’s court request. He said he was impressed with her credentials and confident she would be able to oversee the case fairly.
“I think she will want to be highly regarded for her judicial leadership of this case,” Coffey said.
Jeffrey Garland, a criminal defense attorney in Fort Pierce, Fla., where Cannon’s courtroom is located, praised Cannon for her handling of a trial before her last year in which she represented a “pretty difficult” defendant who had been accused of throwing. a chair in a federal prosecutor.
“She was able to maintain the dignity of the courtroom and the composure of the courtroom, and she was able to express control in ways that weren’t threatening,” Garland said, adding that she assumed Cannon could do the same in the Trump case. “I think he understands that’s what a federal judge has to do in a case like this. It’s true in any case, but especially in this case.”
Cannon, a graduate of Duke University and the Colombian daughter of a Cuban immigrant, clerked for a U.S. Circuit Court judge and worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, prosecuting several dozen cases as part of his office’s Major Crimes Division and later handling appeals of convictions and sentences, before being nominated by Trump in 2020. She has also been a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization.
Her ruling in Trump’s lawsuit last September catapulted her into the spotlight, effectively halting key aspects of the Justice Department’s investigation into the hoarding of classified documents. In overturning the order, the appeals court said leaving it in place would have allowed for a “radical reordering of our jurisprudence by limiting the involvement of federal courts in criminal investigations.”
As the judge assigned to Trump’s criminal indictment, she will be empowered to issue rulings that could shape the course of the case, including what evidence can and cannot be admitted and whether it should proceed quickly to trial or grant the Trump team’s request. for a delay
There have been few substantive issues for Cannon to decide in the month since Trump’s indictment, although he set a tentative trial date for August, a formality under the Speedy Trial Act, in Fort Pierce and denying a Justice Department request to produce under seal a list of witnesses prosecutors want Trump barred from discussing the case.
But there are big issues ahead.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys are at odds over the trial date, an issue with significant legal and political implications. The Justice Department has proposed a Dec. 11 trial, while defense lawyers have suggested it should be delayed until after the 2024 presidential election, citing the challenges of scheduling a date as Trump pursues the Republican nomination and the legal problems they say are “extraordinary” and complex.
It is unclear when this issue will be resolved.
Tuesday’s state conference focuses on the Classified Information Procedures Act, a 1980 law that governs how classified information is handled in a criminal trial and is likely to provide an essential road map in this case. The law seeks to balance a defendant’s right to access evidence that prosecutors intend to use at trial with the government’s desire to safeguard confidential and classified information.
Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense attorney and former senior Justice Department official, said he did not necessarily believe Cannon’s lack of experience in this area would be detrimental given the case law and past precedent she and the lawyers can appeal to consult them.
“These things are not new. They’re not everyday occurrences, but it’s not like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no precedent for any of this,'” he said.
Whatever happens, Coffey said, “the eyes of the world are on her. She’s in the middle of writing a chapter in history.”
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Tucker reported from Washington.
