The assignment of federal judge Aileen Cannon to the Mar-a-Lago case has set off warning alarms for legal experts, but panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said she had plenty of reasons to step aside.
The Donald Trump-appointed district court judge issued some eyebrow-raising rulings in her handling of the case last year, before the former president was indicted, but Florida prosecutor Dave Aronberg said Cannon would be constrained by legal guardrails.
“She made some controversial rulings, but she also knows she was publicly humiliated by the 11th Circuit [Appeals Court],” said Aronberg, the Palm Beach County state attorney. “The three-judge panel cited it, and they smacked down her rulings, and they took her off the case, and two of the three judges were Trump appointees. You have to believe maybe she will act differently, not wanting to get put in timeout again. Don’t expect her to recuse herself, the case of a lifetime, and she went out of her way to intervene in the case last year when she shouldn’t have, and why would she take herself off voluntarily? If she goes out of bounds, expect [special counsel] Jack Smith to go to the 11th Circuit to get her removed, but I don’t think it will happen yet.”
Host Joe Scarborough agreed the appeals court would limit the harm Cannon could do to the prosecution by issuing “bizarre rulings” in the phase of the case.
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“If she makes the wacko rulings like last time, going back to the 11th Circuit,” he said. “I do love how it’s playing out. It’s not going to the 9th circuit, the most conservative circuit in America with Trump- appointed judges, and they reverse it and going back down to another Trump-appointed judge, and the question is how much does she want to be humiliated? Has she learned? We will see. Any bad ruling will be reversed by the 11th Circuit. The only thing here, let’s just say that somebody wanted to drag this case out to benefit Donald Trump, that is one thing completely in her power. That’s what Donald Trump wants.”
The special counsel had to know that Cannon was a possibility when he pursued the case in South Florida, but Aronberg said charging Trump there was a strategic move that potentially made a conviction more likely.
“Jack Smith filed this case in South Florida, and in part because he wanted it to be expedited,” he said. “He wanted to eliminate Trump’s arguments [that] it’s the wrong venue and tried to avoid the delays. He got Judge Cannon, and yes, she could grant the extensions and delays, and that’s Trump’s strategy. I’m not worried she will dismiss the case. The 11th Circuit has shown they will not only reverse her, but they are quick to act. They know the stakes here, and she could do something that could really hurt the prosecution, such as she could allow more Trump supporters on the jury during jury selection, and she could, if he is found guilty, she could go way below the federal sentencing guidelines and give extreme leniency. There’s ways to she could hurt the prosecution, but I agree, if she goes too far, the 11th Circuit will step in. But I don’t know if they can avoid if she delays past the 2024 election.”
Trump so far has a number of advantages with the case being prosecuted in the more politically friendly South Florida with a judge he appointed, but that poses a potential risk to Cannon if she presides over the case fairly and the former president winds up being convicted and sentenced.
“He would turn on her the same way,” said panelist Richard Haas.
Watch the video below or at this link.