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‘The Legal Term for This Garbage’: Experts Bash ‘Pandering’ Trump-Nominated Judge Running to His Defense
Former prosecutors Cynthia Alksne and Glenn Kirschner sounded the alarm about the judge who granted Donald Trump’s demand for a “special master” to review the documents at Mar-a-Lago for any possible attorney-client privilege, while speaking with MSNBC fill-in host Michael Steele.
Kirschner pointed out that never in his 30 years practicing law has he ever seen a judge make a ruling before she’d heard from the opposing side.
“I went back and looked at U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order, and here is what she said,” Kirschner began. “Before I read this one sentence, Michael, mind you that she entered this tentative border before the Department of Justice prosecutors even had an opportunity to weigh in on the issue. She said quote, ‘The court hereby provides notice of its preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case.’ And she has only heard from Trump’s defense team.”
He said that he’s never heard a judge even announce a “tentative ruling” before both parties have been heard.
“I think this indicates a judge who has extraordinarily poor judgment at best, and at worse is biased in favor of Donald Trump,” he continued. “As a footnote, I think it is worth mentioning that she was confirmed by the Senate, Mitch McConnell’s Senate after Donald Trump lost the presidential election.”
Alksne straight-up called it “pandering. I think that is the legal term for this garbage.”
She went on to say that there likely won’t be a so-called “special master” appointed. The government seems to be indicating that they’ve already searched through the documents with those who have the appropriate level of clearance. The appointment of a special master would mean that they had to find someone who has the highest level of clearance to handle such documents in a secure facility. The problem, however, is that there is no “special master” for executive privilege cases. The Justice Department is likely to appeal the decision to a higher court that will overrule Judge Aileen Cannon, and likely, publicly humiliate her.
“I do not think there will be a special master,” Alksne explained. “He has requested a special master, basically, because Rudy got. One in the attorney-client case. This isn’t an attorney-client privilege case. They started the wrong statutes as they are appointing a special master. There is no special master and executive privilege cases. And in the Presidential Records Act, executive privilege cases — those must be filed in D.C. This is filed in Florida. So, it is in the wrong jurisdiction. And there is no special master for classified information cases. So, I think it is only a matter of time before the pandering and by the Trump judge that there will not be a special master and this is a delay tactic.”
Kirschner called “pandering” the polite characterization.
There’s also the possibility of an obstruction of justice charge. Trump may have escaped accountability under the obstruction of Robert Mueller’s probe, but he no longer enjoys the protection of the executive branch and the Justice Department’s OLC decision not to indict a sitting president. Kirschner called the likely charges of obstruction “more than just a possibility.”
“The reason it is such an important criminal charge that the FBI agent who drafted the affidavit, in support of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, included in what they are criminally investigating, is because it does not matter the nature of the documents,” said Kirschner. “They could be classified, they could have been magically declassified by Trump, not really but that is when he is claiming. They could be confidential secrets, secret SCI special access programs. They could be whatever, and the fact that Trump and company secreted them, concealed, them and refused to produce them even after being subpoenaed for them — it is what makes this obstruction of justice regardless of the classification of those documents.”
Alksne also said that the blacked-out portion of the affidavit is likely the “obstruction” part of the case against Trump.
“It is the heart and soul of this investigation,” she explained. “And the decision on prosecution ultimately will be based, in my, opinion on the obstruction if there is national security damage. That assessment is being undergone right now.”
See the full conversation below:
Image via Shutterstock
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
