The Thought running Through my Mind was “Who will be the Judge in Florida?”
The second question; Why do Repubs get to pick the judges they wish to appear before? And the third question? Why do Dems get whatever is available? I was thinking about this happenstance on Friday when I read trump would appear in Federal Court in Florida. And yes, trump appointee Judge Aileen Cannon came to mind. Here we are once again . . .
How does Judge Cannon get to be the assigned to oversee the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump? This coming after the judge’s earlier unbiased performance requiring the Feds to appeal to a conservative 11th District Court of Appeals. Indeed, the 11th went a bit further than the issue brought to them by the DOJ. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Cannon had no jurisdiction to hear Trump’s complaint in the first place. And any other outcome, the court explained, would constitute “a radical reordering of our caselaw” violating “bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.” Slate’s Mark Stern explained the put down and the warning by the COA to Federal Judge Aileen Cannon.
It remains to be seen whether Judge Cannon will voluntarily recuse herself from this hearing or not. If not, for sure the DOJ will be filing such a request.
Grabbing a bag of popcorn to munch on while this plays out.
It has been noted that the Special Prosecutor chose Florida to indict because it would seem to be less biased than NY (or elsewhere?) relative to juries. However, odds were pretty good (bad?) that they would get the same judge as previously, as she has ‘some knowledge of the case already.’ Is that dumb?
One can only hope that Judge Cannon took such a lambasting from the appeals court that she will do better this time.
The alledged crimes predominantly (possibly entirely) occurred in Florida. The defendant lives in Florida. Many of the witnesses would testify about evidence found in Florida. New York was never an option. No other place was a real option. The judge might recuse, but not obvious why. That is she would have recused the first time. On the other hand, the case will be a headache, so a person might just duck if they have any kind of available reason to do so.
Hmmm:
The crimes of stealing government documents occurred in Washington D.C. and then moved to Southern Florida. Magistrate Judge Rheinhart initially was handling the case. Trump’s attorneys petitioned for a different district judge. They were able to get assignment to Cannon.
DC as an alternative at least makes some sense. But still makes better sense to proceed in Florida. I’d be pretty surprised if the SC spent much time even thinking about the “where” part of this. Possible that others might have wanted it somewhere other than Florida, but their reasoning doesn’t mean that it was a real dilemma that the prosecution was wrestling with. From the day of the FBI warrant for Mar-a-lago a resulting case was going to be in Florida. Anyway, the original comment seemed to suggest New York, which is least a big city, but about as relevant as Elkhart, IN.
Eric:
The theft of the documents was in DC. There are Federal District judges in DC. No SC involved till past the COA. Federal courts can cross state boundaries.
Horse probably dead, but am I naive to think that the “(i)t has been noted….” feels like total baloney versus “the case is focused on a Florida defendant, with investigation centered in Florida and the charging document dominated by evidence found in Florida by the Florida-based investigators”? I mean who exactly noted what they noted? Does anyone think if Trump took the papers to Trump Tower and everything happened in Manhattan that the SC would have moved the case to Nebraska? It feels like a degradation of discourse. A minor one, maybe.
“One can only hope that Judge Cannon took such a lambasting from the appeals court that she will do better this time.”
That posits that Judge Cannon is possessed of a sense of shame, which assumes facts not in evidence.
Trump goes off on Jack Smith and the indictment brought against him
The former president sought to galvanize his supporters to view the entire American justice system as corrupt, weaponized to target conservatives and deployed to prevent him from winning the 2024 election. The indictment, he said, was a “joke,” done only because Democrats feared him.
“These people don’t stop and they’re bad and we have to get rid of them,” Trump said to an audience assembled by the Georgia Republican Party. “These criminals cannot be rewarded. They must be defeated.” …
I can imagine Judge Cannon going along with this, maybe ending up on the SC at some point.
Joel;
Good to see you. I am actually waiting for Jack to show up and answer. He is the bigwig attorney around here.
She is merely a referee, the outcome is up to the jury
Sure, she could foul things up, as she did before, but like before the 11th will shut that shit right down, and she’ll find herself judging dog-shows in Bum-Fuck Britain the rest of her life
I could be mistaken, but I think she’ll be a model judge …
Very interesting questions. I wonder why we hear of ‘judge shopping’ on the right and don’t hear about that much about the left. And I don’t know why that is. Maybe the ‘right wing’ is more trying to change things from the status quo and the left is more just playing defense? It does seem that a very real goal of Republicans for the last forty years has been to change the ideology of the courts in general by appointing very conservative, or even reactionary judges and blocking Democrat appointments whenever possible. I wish I knew more about this. And I hope someone who does would write a better explanation.
Depends on the type of litigation a lot I understand. If you want a result that a judge has full authority over – like injunctions – you might be more inclined to “shop”. Criminal cases before juries diminish the direct significance of the judge.
I think they filed in Florida to avoid a venue dispute that could delay matters considerably and end up in the Supreme Court. The court administrator in the southern district of Florida claims that it was a random assignment, per their administrative policies. If that’s true, it was extraordinarily bad luck, since there are 15 active judges in the district plus retired judges who still hear cases. If it’s not true, the fix is in.
It isn’t judge shopping by Trump. It was in the prior case which was a civil proceeding they filed in the portion of the district that only had Judge Cannon available. If the thumb is on the scale here, it was placed by the administrator at the behest of someone; maybe the Chief Judge of the district, but unknown at this point.
As the Slate article by Mark Stern points out, she can do enormous damage to the prosecution’s case, should she wish to do so. With respect to evidence rulings and jury selection issues, those decisions are probably not reviewable, as a matter of right, in the midst of the trial and would have to await a verdict before becoming appealable. Should Trump prevail with jury due to judicial errors, serious issues of double jeopardy could arise with respect to a possible retrial after reversal. It’s a mess! She really should recuse or be recused but there’s no guaranty of that.
This crossed my In-Box: If you think former President Donald Trump is finally, really, actually, but for real this time, about to face justice — hold on just one moment.
“He said all Trump needs is a judge completely in the tank for him — a judge who is willing to sacrifice their reputation in order to protect him.”
That or a hold out juror.
Ok. I figured you would know.
Thanks