There are many layers to the saga of Donald Trump and his allies. One of the most intriguing layers is the relationship between Trump and his appointee, Aileen Cannon. A new twist may have just taken place there.

Hugo Lowell is a journalist for The Guardian and has a great track record for finding good tidbits and getting them up on Twitter. His Twitter feed is a great place to follow bread crumbs.

At first blush, it would seem that Cannon would not want to expose the list of the names in this case, because if Trump litigation has taught us anything, it’s that witness intimidation is the normal order of the day.

The Guardian:

When Trump was arraigned in federal district court in Miami earlier this month, the magistrate judge overseeing the court appearance ruled that Trump and his co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, were prohibited from talking to certain witnesses about the case other than through their lawyers.

The government as a result filed a two-page motion last week requesting to file the list of witnesses under seal, in which they cited the magistrate judge’s order and the fact that Trump and Nauta’s lawyers had not objected, as the rationale for not making the list public.

But that was insufficient basis to file the list in secret, Cannon said in her ruling, noting that a coalition of numerous media organizations that include the Guardian had also asked her to deny the motion.

The early rulings from Cannon – a judge with relative inexperience – in the Trump classified documents case are being closely watched after she previously disrupted the criminal investigation that preceded the case with several rulings that were favorable to the former president.

After the FBI executed a court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago resort last year, Cannon for months tied up the investigation by appointing a special master to review the documents seized from the property, until an appeals court ruled she did not have such authority and overturned her.

Separately on Monday, Cannon also formally started the complex US government process for classified information to be presented at trial by scheduling the first hearing to decide timings for 14 July – a slower timeline than the government had proposed.

We’re now waiting for the next shoe to drop and that is Jack Smith’s. It likely won’t happen today but it will happen soon.

Maybe it is that simple. And maybe Cannon wants to be removed but did not want to recuse herself.

Lots of maybes. Sure will be nice to get the answers.

 

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Well, if we have learned anything about Jack Smith, it’s that he’s not into wasting time. If he’s not happy with the ruling, we will know tomorrow.

    Also, her reasoning is suspect. Media organizations always want everything published, they don’t always win in court. The defense is OK with keeping the list sealed, that alone should have been enough. Releasing the list now will just result in intimidation of witnesses. Everyone will know who the witnesses are as the trial proceeds. We knew Judge Loose Cannon was going to strike sometime, I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.

    18

    • given that the defendant has an online army of domestic terrorists at his beck and call, keeping it secret is a no-brainer.

      2

  2. I heard Barbara McQuade on Rachel Maddow’s show and she said on the balance the judges ruling was correct as a matter of law – and that we shouldn’t get worked up about it or at her for the ruling. She went on to say Smith could have simply given the list to Trump’s lawyers instead of making it a formal court record. It didn’t come up quite that way but reading between the lines I think what she was suggesting is that instead of making the actual list part of the court record at this point and opening up the entire “public good” case law (and again, she said the judge is on solid ground and she’s pretty damned knowledgeable and credible) Smith could have just turned over the list and gone to her with a motion NOT with the list but simply asking for the protective order. That I think would have given him grounds to appeal.

    For all that, Smith might actually be setting Trump up. You just know he will NOT be able to contain himself in the months ahead and he WILL engage in conduct that Smith can go to Cannon with and say “Your Honor, the defendant has engaged in witness tampering/intimidation. That’s when things could get interesting, albeit probably not in any good way.

    16

    • I think that’s a reasonable interpretation of the facts. Let’s see what Smith does. I don’t think we’ll have to wait long.

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      • As I said before, it’s hard not to think that Smith is playing three games of three-dimensional chess, while Trump’s lawyers are trying to learn the rules of tic-tac-toe, and the loose Cannon thinks she’s playing checkers.

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  3. I know Ursula is a lawyer and I hope she is right. I, too, was a criminal and civil trial lawyer and find this Loose Cannon to be despicable. She is irretrievably biased and patently inept as she was chastised severely by the 11th Circuit for rulings that violate decades of established law and violated separation of powers in our federal government that she fails to understand.

    There will be no fair trial if she is allowed to preside. I can only hope that this great, veteran prosecutor measures up to our expectations better than Mueller did. I want us to carry Jack Smith on our shoulders as the man who finally brought Trump to the jail time he deserves.

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  4. The danger is that someone will forward the witness list to the assorted right wing gun nuts who will take it as their solemn duty to ‘protect the real president’.

    It will, almost certainly lead not only to witness tampering but witness elimination

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