Cannon’s Bias Has Legal Expert Saying Time To Talk Recusal

There has been plenty of concern surrounding Aileen Cannon and her seeming bias that favors former president Donald Trump, especially regarding the classified documents case in Florida, and one legal expert, in particular, is wondering if it’s time for an appeals court to take action. On Wednesday, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance again questioned Cannon’s behavior in this case, saying she found the pattern of delay “disturbing,” according to Raw Story.

“Perhaps we’d view any one of them, on their own, as a judicial aberration. But the pattern of ruling upon ruling that is out of the legal mainstream and results in delay well past the point where this case should have been ready for trial is something that shouldn’t be ignored,” vance wrote in her substack column. “judges should not put their fingers on the scales of justice either for or against a defendant or any other party. here, it’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that the scales are being tipped.”

Vance isn’t the only legal voicing concerns after she rejected special counsel Jack Smith’s request to keep government witnesses secret, Salon reports.

Smith’s team was firmly opposed to revealing information that could uncover the identity or any personal information on any potential witnesses in the case. The team was also opposed to the release of transcripts or other documents witnesses may have provided, citing worries over witness intimidation.

But Cannon swept those concerns aside, ruling in Trump’s favor on the issue and writing: “Following an independent review of the Motion and the full record, the Court determines, with limited exceptions as detailed below, that the Special Counsel has not set forth a sufficient factual or legal basis warranting deviation from the strong presumption in favor of public access to the records at issue.”

That seems to be what caught Vance’s attention and she noted Tuesday that the judge has “entered an order in the case that is worth paying attention to.”

“trump and his florida co-defendants filed a consolidated motion on january 16, 2024, asking the court to order the government to turn over more discovery to them than it had provided… the special counsel filed a response, opposing making information public if it revealed the identity or any personal identifying information of any potential witness for the government, or any transcripts or other documentation of statements or testimony they may have given,” Vance wrote. “most judges would give serious consideration to protecting this type of information, at least at this stage of the proceedings. Judge Cannon decided to protect some, but not all of it.”

But Vance comes up with a common-sense solution that isn’t necessarily based on Cannon’s seeming bias in favor of Trump, or even that he nominated her during his final days in office. Instead, she centers her conclusion around Cannon’s habit of making decisions that she believes lack validity.

“When judge cannon was first assigned this case, we DISCUSSED the standards used in the 11th circuit for determining whether a judge should be recused based on their prior conduct in a case,” Vance wrote. “The argument is not one of personal bias, or even that she should be recused because trump appointed her. But in rare, extraordinary cases where a judge has made multiple rulings that were without a valid basis in the record, the 11th circuit has ordered recusal, finding that the ‘original judge would have difficulty putting his previous views and findings aside. whether they would apply that rule to cannon remains to be seen. forced recusals are rare. But at this late date, even if the 11th circuit were to move quickly, as it has in the past, and force cannon to step aside, it would take a new judge some time to get up to speed. there are no quick fixes for the damage judge cannon has done.”

When we think about Cannon it’s important to realize that this judge thinks it’s fine to release information about vulnerable witnesses and vulnerable information. That has to do with national security. There is no getting around that. This could do great harm. But this is a woman who doesn’t care. To me, she appears blindly loyal to Trump and is repeatedly stalling this case, whereas Smith is trying to do his job.

It sure looks like Cannon is making every move to get in the way of this. Vance, I believe is completely correct here. And she’s the legal expert. Not me.