Aileen Cannon made 'multiple errors' in June trial — including one that 'could have invalidated' the case

Aileen Cannon, the federal district judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents case, botched a completely separate trial in June, including a violation of the defendant's rights that could end up getting the whole case thrown out, reported Reuters on Friday.

According to reporting by Sarah Lynch and Jacqueline Thompson, Cannon "closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man — accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse — to the defendant's family and the general public, a trial transcript obtained by Reuters showed. A defendant's right to a public trial is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment."

Cannon also forgot to swear in the jury pool before selection, which forced the whole process to be restarted, before the defendant pleaded guilty.

Santa Clara Law School professor Stephen Smith was aghast at these errors, saying, "She ignored the public trial right entirely. It's as though she didn't know it existed."

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Experts say that errors of this sort, which deprive defendants of constitutional rights, are so severe the Supreme Court has recognized them as grounds for invalidating the whole trial.

Cannon, a Trump appointee and member of the right-wing Federalist Society who was confirmed to the bench in 2020 with the bare minimum experience considered qualifying by the American Bar Association, has already caused controversy in her handling of the case.

Previously, during the investigation of highly classified national defense information seized at Mar-a-Lago, Cannon blocked the FBI from reviewing the documents until a special master could examine them for executive privilege, effectively granting Trump pre-indictment rights no other defendant is entitled to. An appellate panel of three Republican-appointed judges, including two other Trump appointess, found her order inappropriate and reversed her decision.