Cannon’s Either Decided To Roll Over Or She’s Totally Confused. Which?

You might as well join in with all the legal experts in this country, and others, watching the latest machinations of Aileen Loose Cannon and interpreting the tea leaves. Come, let’s all take a shot. Cannon has made it very clear in the past that she’s one of Donald Trump’s lap dogs and of the four judges assigned to four criminal cases in four different jurisdictions, she’s made it plain that if she can manage to tip the scales in his favor, out comes a massively heavy thumb and does just that.

Today Cannon issued a ruling giving Trump less than a month to comply with a paperwork deadline. The ruling is susceptible to two different interpretations, as you will clearly see below. One interpretation indicates that Cannon may just be giving up now and realizing that to sway things in Trump’s favor anymore is going to jeopardize her remaining on the case and that could subsequently jeopardize her career; or, she may be oblivious to what’s going on. I call your attention to Hanlon’s rule, “never attribute to conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

Granting the motions would mean DOJ would have to search for add'l records, review them, & work with agencies on CIPA protections. That would take well more than a month. Trump's team would want to see these records before issuing its Sec. 5 notice (info it wants to use at trial)

— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) April 10, 2024

Okay. So as you just read, *if* Cannon was going to grant Trump’s motions to compel discovery, then why would she schedule the Sec. 5 notice for less than a month? [Sec. 5 refers to CIPA Sec. 5. CIPA is Classified Information Procedures Act and Sec. 5 refers to an evidentiary hearing where a party (Trump) specifies in a written notice what classified information he intends to disclose.]

So, Cannon, in setting a Sec. 5 hearing soon may be indicating she has decided to fold, *fold* being defined as she can’t safely do anything to overtly help Trump at this point, i.e, further delay, without it being obvious, so she’s not. That’s one school of thought here, in any event.

She acknowledges that the deadline applies only to "discovery produced to date" in her order, so she just might not care about having multiple Sec. 5 notices.

This tea leaf reading only applies to classified discovery, not unclass discovery (which isn't bound by CIPA Sec. 5).

— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) April 10, 2024

Now, if Cannon *doesn’t care* about multiple notices, she could simply be oblivious to the practicalities of the matter. This would not surprise anybody if it was the case.

Here’s the YES, BUT: Judge Cannon notes in her order this CIPA Sec 5 notice is based on “classified discovery produced to date”. She expressly doesn’t foreclose multiple rounds of Sec 5 as a result of her granting Trump’s motion to compel

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 10, 2024

So there you have it. Nobody knows. Either theory has some good points to be made in its favor. Maybe we should just flip a coin in the air. That’s as good a way as any in determining what Aileen Cannon may do next.

I'll ignore you…again. : )

Yes, my argument only makes sense if you assume she'll manage the case in an orderly, logical manner. That's a big IF!

— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) April 10, 2024

That is my point, this last one. *IF* Cannon is seeking to manage the case in an orderly and maximally productive manner is not guaranteed — like it would be with other jurists. And many other people agree with that.

Gents, Cannon is a bad faith actor and is pitting sane people against each other. She's evil.

— fuQ the Qonfederacy (@RepublicanSlur) April 10, 2024

This is the sad reality that I fear that we are dealing with. Cannon is a bad faith actor. Maybe we should just thank our lucky stars and count our blessings that out of the four judges assigned to the four Trump criminal cases, that so far we have only one bad apple. Maybe that is the simple reality of the situation.

In any event, we will be keeping a sharp eye out, as always, to see what Cannon does next. But my spidey sense is that she doesn’t want to give Jack Smith any more ammunition than he already has. She’s on thin ice and she knows it. So we may have seen Cannon do the worse that she can and will do. That is devoutly to be wished.

Meanwhile, let us keep our eyes on the road directly ahead and that means Monday’s hush money trial. Trump is going to flip out over the next four days before the trial starts. That much is guaranteed. We simply don’t know what form flipping out will take. That’s what we’re going to find out.