It is "astonishing" that Judge Aileen Cannon has apparently decided not to recuse herself from the criminal case against Donald Trump, a former federal prosecutor said on Saturday.
Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner appeared on The Legal Breakdown with Brian Tyler Cohen, and was asked about the implications of Cannon being the judge to oversee the case that includes Espionage Act charges against the former president. This question is especially relevant considering Cannon was previously reversed by the Eleventh Circuit for wrongly involving herself in the investigation phase of the Trump case.
Kirschner said Cannon's early order in the case implies that she has determined that no reasonable person could possibly question her impartiality, and that such a conclusion is "astonishing" considering her record on related matters.
"She has apparently looked at the federal law, and she has decided that no one - no one - can reasonably question her impartiality, which frankly I find astonishing because an appellate court found previously that she acted unlawfully - contrary to the law - by doing an enormous solid for Donald Trump and stopping the DOJ's criminal investigation into the very documents that now form the basis of the prosecution she will preside over."
He further noted that there should be some form of discussion or debate on this issue before Cannon simply claimed the case and issued her first order. Still, Kirschner says, Jack Smith still has time to seek the judge's disqualification.
"That hasn't been done yet, but there is still time," he said. "The rule is a little bit flexible or a little bit vague... it seems like they set a 10-day time frame." He said the first order Cannon issued could be that triggering event to start that 10-day clock.
