'God bless you': Aileen Cannon reportedly known for blessing defendants who plead guilty

Judge Aileen Cannon, the judicial authority who will get the first crack at the federal criminal case against Donald Trump for alleged misconduct in connection with government documents and classified records, is reportedly known by her religious references by lawyers who have argued before her.

There has been a lot of talk about Cannon's seemingly excessive inexperience, but The Atlantic interviewed numerous attorneys who could speak to the experience she does have. While some liberal lawyers described her as a tough sentencer, others described her simply as "fair," according to the report.

"After just two and a half years as a judge, Cannon will soon preside over a trial with no precedent in American history. The defendant is the former president who appointed her, and her rulings during the investigation that led to Trump’s indictment have already prompted many legal experts to fear that she will tilt the trial in his favor," the Atlantic reported. "But some of the Democratic lawyers who have appeared in Cannon’s courtroom don’t share those worries. They say that she is a smarter, more deliberate, and more even-handed judge than the early criticism of her would suggest."

The Atlantic's article by Russell Berman quotes Richard Klugh, a "longtime defense attorney in Miami who has dealt with Cannon both as a judge and when she served as a federal prosecutor there," as saying, "I think the government should be very happy that they have Judge Cannon."

But something else stands out about Cannon, who appears to have a habit of bringing up religion when other judges would never.

"Two South Florida lawyers told me that they were struck by Cannon’s overt religiosity, which has seeped into her pronouncements in court," Berman writes. "She routinely tells defendants 'God bless you' after they enter guilty pleas, said Valentin Rodriguez, a lawyer who has appeared before Cannon."

“In my entire 30-year career I’ve never had a judge mention God to a client ever,” Rodriguez told Berman. “She does that as a matter of course.”