The former general counsel to the FBI, Andrew Weissmann, was shocked and appalled by Judge Aileen Cannon's behavior in a court filing on Wednesday.
Reading the filing, he posted on social media that it was "snarky" and "too far" for a federal judge. He noted no good deed goes unpunished, with the prosecutors "ben[ding] over backward to give defense counsel access to docs. It could have argued they should not have access to it at all. Why? So defense counsel could make arguments about them to the court. Upshot: Cannon dings the government for taking that route."
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday, he expanded on the comments, explaining the debate about the access to classified information. The other two defendants with Donald Trump in the case are Carlos de Olavide and Walt Nauta.
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"Some it's hard because it's classified material. A lot of the motion practice is under seal, precisely because the government, under a statute called CIPA, c-i-p-a, for Classified Information and Procedure Act, is allowed to make these kinds of sealed filings," said Weissmann. "But what's at issue is who gets access to it, whether the documents have to be seen by the defendant or whether they can be seen just by defense counsel. And then whether it's okay to give summaries of the documents or whether you have to give the actual documents to either the defendant or the defense counsel."
He explained it means there are a lot of concerns and the decision Cannon made Wednesday is "a little unclear" and "the tempest in a teapot with the judge spilling a lot of ink over whether the government essentially proceeded under the wrong section than saying what you can — essentially you can come back and do this under a different section of the CIPA statute and not this one."
That's when he brought up the snark coming from the federal judge, saying that they were words she wouldn't want to see even a litigant in her court use, thus, they're inappropriate for a judge. He went on to call it "surprising."
"Then most surprising, I think, is the tea leaf reading that she suggested and I think people are waiting for her to put the trial off," Weissmann said. He also noted that there is an ongoing concern that Cannon isn't experienced enough to handle such a big case after being on the bench for only a few years.
See Weissmann's full comments in the video below or at the link here.
Ex-FBI counsel shames Judge Cannon for improper behavior people in court couldn't do www.youtube.com
