Evidence is mounting that Judge Aileen Cannon ought to be forced out of overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida.
That's according to MSNBC legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. Glenn Kirschner, who argued in a column for MSNBC on Wednesday night that with each new development in Trump's case, it's become "increasingly clear" that Cannon's impartiality can be questioned.
That’s important, Kirschner said, because federal code states that when a judge’s impartiality becomes "reasonably be questioned, the judge 'shall disqualify' herself from the case."
"It’s time for a fair, impartial and independent judge to assume responsibility for this case," he said.
Kirschner added that a "virtual mountain of evidence" exists in Trump's Florida case in favor of Cannon’s removal.
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"Even before the case commenced, when Trump complained in a court about the FBI seizing his stuff, Cannon ordered the Justice Department to stop investigating the classified documents that were retrieved from Trump, despite them being seized under a lawfully issued search warrant," he said. "She then appointed a special master to review the evidence the FBI had taken, bringing the investigation to a grinding halt."
An appeals court later reversed Cannon's decision — and found she abused her judicial discretion.
"In layman’s terms, Cannon did something that the law did not authorize, and she did it to Donald Trump’s extreme advantage. And that was even before the actual prosecution came into existence," he said.
Furthermore, Cannon has thus far refused to set a trial date — despite the case being in court for a year and Trump’s defense team saying it'd be ready to go to trial by August — and she has repeatedly entertained dubious motions from Trump’s team.
"For example, earlier this month Trump filed a 'spoliation of evidence' challenge, arguing that because the FBI didn’t document the exact location of each item inside each box that was seized from Mar-a-Lago, that somehow equates to the FBI intentionally destroying exculpatory evidence," Kirschner wrote in the article published on Wednesday. "Having reviewed seized evidence in hundreds of criminal cases over my 30 years as a federal prosecutor, this assertion is absurd."
Moreover, she's faced criticism even from other judges.
Retired federal Judge Shira Scheindlin criticized Cannon and accused her of showing favoritism towards Trump, and antagonizing prosecutors. Scheindlin suggested that Cannon's inexperience makes her feel "insecure in her rulings."
