Judge Cannon could be yanked from Trump docs case without Jack Smith asking for it: expert
February 21, 2024
Former Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann explained that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals could remove Judge Aileen Cannon from the Donald Trump documents case without anyone asking for it.
Cannon has already been overturned by the higher court twice, and if special counsel Jack Smith appeals her decision on exposing classified information and exposing witnesses, Weissmann thinks they'd overturn her in this case as well. Smith has asked that Cannon reconsider her decision instead.
"She's already done something unusual," he explained, citing her request for information from the government about a person under criminal investigation.
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Smith has argued that in case after case, witnesses who stand up to Trump generally get attacked, endure death threats, and their lives are purportedly destroyed by the former president and his followers.
"It's something that's known to the Trump camp, but it shouldn't be made public because they have seen what has happened to witnesses like many other people who are subjected to harassment," Weissmann said of the witness' identities. "And so the government is trying to protect those witnesses and the truth-seeking function of the trial, which is where there's this back and forth and a motion for reconsideration."
He explained that Smith would appeal because it deals with the safety of witnesses.
"That is why you go into the government," he said. "You go in to make sure that trials are truth-seeking. That people are not harmed by doing their duty to the government and trials. That's one where if she does not reverse herself, it will go to the circuit. It is hard to imagine that the circuit would not reverse her."
If she is overturned, it will be the third time the appeals court has had to step in, and he said it might be their limit.
"There's already been two times that the 11th Circuit, in conservative panels, has issued what can only be described as scathing rulings against Judge Cannon," Weissmann characterized. "So, in that connection, it is possible that Jack Smith seeks to have her recused. I think at this point, it's speculative to know what he would do. It's also possible that the 11th Circuit will do something that happens — I won't say routinely, but you do see happen — which is a polite recusal, where the court decides against the trial judge and then says, just for appearance sake, this is going to be reassigned to someone else."
No one in that case would have to move for recusal, he explained. The court would do it "as quietly and politely as possible."
"I would think that if this happens for a third time where the Court of Appeals is reversing Judge Cannon, either because the court just said on its own or Jack Smith actually moves to recuse, you could see, what it is that is being reported, coming to fruition," Weissmann closed.
See the discussion in the video below or at the link here.
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