Watchdog seeks Cannon removal from Trump documents case [View all]

Source: The Hill

09/04/24 11:02 AM ET


A watchdog group is asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case, arguing she has taken “many efforts to undermine and derail the prosecution of this case.”

The brief from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) comes as special counsel Jack Smith is appealing a ruling from Cannon that tossed the documents case entirely in determining Smith was unlawfully appointed. The CREW brief asks for the documents case to be reassigned to another jurist in South Florida. Smith did not make that request, but the 11th Circuit could independently determine the rare move is warranted.

“Even before she dismissed this case on novel and insupportable grounds that ignored both statutory authority and Supreme Court precedent, Judge Cannon’s other extraordinary rulings and sluggish administration of the case had provoked well-founded concerns that she might be biased against the Government’s case and unable to manage that case impartially,” CREW wrote in its motion to file a friend-of-the-court brief filed late Tuesday.

The filing also comes on behalf of retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner, who previously raised concerns to The Hill over potential bias by Cannon, as well as two ethics attorneys. A message left at Cannon’s chambers was not immediately returned.

Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4861235-crew-requests-removal-cannon/