By: Peter Marko Tase
On September 5th, the US District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered an appointment of a special expert to review documents seized on August 8th, 2022, during the FBI’s investigation and raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beach resort.
Judge Cannon repeatedly expressed concern about the unprecedented nature of the law enforcement action, stating that the decision was necessary to promote a perception of justice.
Cannon was born in Columbia, attended Duke University, and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. From 2009 to 2012, she worked in the Washington office of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and then as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of Florida.
According to former President Donald Trump, the FBI “ran into” his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida and even broke his safe, and the investigation was related to classified information that Trump allegedly took with him from the White House in January 2021 to his Palm Beach resort.
Trump also claimed in a written statement that the investigation – unprecedented in American history – was politically motivated. President Trump declared that “these are dark times for our nation as my beautiful Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida is currently besieged, attacked, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents”.
By the way, FBI agents even went so far as to look for “evidence” in former first lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe. Melania has already announced that she feels this investigation is an invasion of her privacy, especially since the agents’ hands were even on her underwear, so she plans to change her entire wardrobe. The right wing of social media, in particular, made mocking insinuations about the police rummaging through Melania’s underwear, sending the Justice Department into an impotent rage.
Judge Cannon ruled that Trump’s position as a former president meant that the seizure of documents is an “unheard-of stigma”, and that any future indictment would “cause reputational damage”.
Cannon, who also called for a temporary halt to the federal investigation pending a review of the documents, urged the Trump team and the administration to submit potential candidates for the special counsel role by Friday.
Although Cannon’s decision came nearly a month after the August 8th investigation and expressed concern about maintaining an “appearance of justice”, the judge overall defended the United States Constitution with her brave and honest decision and, for the first time in modern history, prevented dirty politics influencing American judiciary.
The judge said the Trump team had demonstrated the possibility of “irreparable harm” and that there was a risk that the government team “will not adequately protect the plaintiff’s privileged and personal material in terms of exposure to either the investigative team or the media”.
The judge also wrote that “plaintiff may not ultimately be entitled to return much of the seized property or to prevail on his anticipated privilege claims. That investigation remains for another day. For now, the circumstances of the seizure in this case and the related need for adequate procedural guarantees are convincing enough for the plaintiff to at least make it through the doors of the courthouse.”
Cannon was contacted about the federal court position in June 2019 when Senator Marco Rubio’s office sent an email saying the Florida Republican wanted to consider her for a vacant US attorney position in the Southern District.
Her request was submitted to Rubio’s Judicial Advisory Committee for the Southern District of Florida at the time. She later held talks with that committee and with Florida Senator Rick Scott’s chief counsel, before traveling to Washington to talk with the White House and Justice Department legal officials. The Senate confirmed her on November 11th, 2020, by a vote of 56 to 21. Her appointment was also supported by a dozen Democrats.
