Judge Aileen Cannon baffled legal experts by delaying several procedural steps ahead of Donald Trump's trial in the classified documents case, and her rulings may complicate other cases involving the former president.
The U.S. District Court judge pushed back a meeting with prosecutors until February to review classified documents and refused to schedule a hearing on which sensitive materials Trump's lawyers intend to use at trial until sometime after March 1, which could delay the trial by up to four months, reported The Daily Beast.
“The tricky thing is, it puts them in limbo," said Brian Greer, a former CIA lawyer with years of experience working on cases involving classified documents. "Another judge could schedule something for May but may not want to, because it’s possible trial will still go in May. If you’re a cynic — and I’m not — you might say she deliberately did this."
Trump is scheduled to stand trial in Washington, D.C., the same week as Super Tuesday in March for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, with his business fraud trial is expected to start three weeks later in Manhattan, and sometime after that he will face a trial in the sprawling racketeering case in Georgia.
But all those cases could be delayed or derailed by Cannon's decisions, which have left legal experts wondering whether to blame her inexperience or her perceived allegiance to Trump.
“She is a full fledged member of the Trump defense team," tweeted Norman Ornstein, a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute. "Aileen Cannon is utterly unfit for the bench. Someone should introduce an impeachment resolution against her. It will go nowhere but will highlight her outrageous conduct."
The Classified Information Procedures Act, which ironically was crafted by then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), established a multistep process for sharing evidence while protecting national security secrets, and Cannon will huddle Feb. 15 and 16 with prosecutors for what's called a Section 4 hearing to review some of the most sensitive materials, and Greer said the delay is puzzling.
“The hearing is much different from what you’d expect," Greer said. "It’d just be the judge getting into a secure room with prosecutors and going through the documents. She’d say, ‘Let me see the full document you’re substituting. Let me see what you’re withholding. Some judges don’t do that at all and just rule from the papers. Others want to review everything."
“I think she could do that a week after DOJ files a Section 4 motion," he added. "Instead, she’s doing it 74 days after they file their motion."
