Aileen Cannon's Campaign for a Supreme Court Seat Just Reached a New Low

"U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon made a not-so-subtle play for President Donald Trump's attention. The Southern District of Florida judge—a longtime favorite of Trump's—issued an order banning the release of a report detailing former special counsel Jack Smith's criminal investigation into the hoards of boxes filled with classified documents that Trump took on his way out of the White House in 2021."

"Before Trump was elected, Judge Cannon slow-walked that investigation for months before ultimately ruling—without precedent and backed by no other court—that Smith had been illegally appointed, so his indictment of Trump had to be thrown out. This was 2024."

"On Monday Cannon granted that request, with a side of gratuitous attacks on the former special counsel. Cannon's order restated that Smith was wrongfully appointed as special counsel—again, she's the only judge who's come to this conclusion."

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order prohibiting the release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on his criminal investigation into Trump's classified documents. Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed near the end of his first term, ruled on a matter outside her technical jurisdiction while attacking Smith's appointment. Trump's co-defendants Waltine Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira requested the permanent ban on the Justice Department releasing Smith's final report, known as Volume II. Cannon granted this request and reiterated her previous ruling that Smith was wrongfully appointed as special counsel—a conclusion no other judge has reached. This decision appears strategically timed to gain Trump's attention amid speculation about potential Supreme Court vacancies.

Read at Slate Magazine