'Confused' Judge Cannon needed concept explained 'slowly' to her in court by lawyers: NYT

As part of an analysis of how U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, reports from her courtroom show a judge who is both "prickly" and" insecure" and often has trouble understanding what lawyers from both sides try to explain to her.

The controversial Cannon -- who has been accused of slow-walking Donald Trump's obstruction of justice trial related to his alleged illegal retention of government documents -- in recent hearings has pressed lawyers to remake their points over and over, which led to the New York Times' Alan Feuer to question whether, "she does not understand the answers she is receiving or is trying to push back against them."

Case in point, he wrote, "At last week’s hearing, she did this to Stanley Woodward Jr., Mr. Nauta’s lawyer, as she considered his request to order prosecutors to provide him with internal communications that could help support his claims that the case against his client had been brought vindictively... When Judge Cannon asked Mr. Woodward what he actually wanted from the government, his answer seemed simple enough: any messages exchanged by prosecutors that mentioned his name."

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According to the NYT report, Cannon re-asked the question and requested Woodward explain his answer "slowly."

"Even after that, it seemed that she was still a bit confused," Feuer wrote, and then noted that exchange was not the only one where she seemed out of her depth based on what followed moments later.

David Harbach, one of the prosecutors, was asked to discuss Woodward's request, and had to elaborate a second time for her "But Judge Cannon seemed to miss his point," Feuer wrote before adding Harbach grew visibly frustrated when she asked him a third time, at which point Harbach "said as plainly as he could that Mr. Woodward’s request had no basis in either fact or law," before loudly stating, "This is what I’m trying to tell you."

That led to an admonishment from Cannon who warned him to “calm down.”

According to the Times report, that exchange is "emblematic" of the difficulties lawyers are having with Cannon, who is still relatively new to the bench after Donald Trump appointed her to the lifetime position.