‘She Just Seems Overwhelmed’: Attorneys Tell CNN That Trump Judge Aileen Cannon Is ‘Not Efficient’ and ‘Indecisive’
Senate Judiciary Committee via AP
Following months of delays related to former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, many have called Judge Aileen Cannon’s handling of the case into question. A new report by CNN, which includes accounts from ten attorneys who have worked with her, paints a very unflattering picture of the “overwhelmed” and “indecisive” judge.
The report published on Friday by CNN’s Tierney Sneed and Hannah Rabinowitz portrayed Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, as a federal official who lacked experience and focus:
Several attorneys who have practiced in front of Cannon – and who spoke to CNN for this story – pointed to her isolation as one explanation for her conduct. Cannon’s solitary post in the Fort Pierce courthouse, one that rarely sees high-profile action, deprives her of the informal, day-to-day interactions with more seasoned judges who sit at the other courthouses and could offer her advice, the lawyers told CNN.
They also said Cannon’s lack of trial experience, both as a lawyer and a judge, is apparent. In her seven years as a Justice Department attorney, Cannon participated on the trial teams of just four criminal cases. And on the bench, she’s only presided over a handful of criminal trials – and [Senior Judge Paul C. Huck] took over one of them.
Huck was the only person to speak on the record to CNN about his work with Cannon, and he described her as “very smart” and “very personable.” But the other attorneys, ten of them, who did not want their names used in the report had less positive feedback:
The attorneys described Cannon as extremely diligent and well prepared, a tough questioner who accepts nothing at face value, and thoughtful in her rulings. But they also said that some of her habits that have raised eyebrows in Trump’s case have plagued her approach from the bench more generally.
Those tendencies include a penchant for letting irrelevant legal questions distract from core issues, a zero-tolerance approach to any technical defects in filings, and a struggle with docket management that allows the type of pretrial disputes that other judges would decide in weeks go unresolved for months.
“She is not efficient,” said one attorney who practices in south Florida. “She is very form over substance.”
Another attorney described her as “indecisive.”
A third attorney who’s had cases before Cannon said, “She just seems overwhelmed by the process.”
Cannon has been the subject of criticism by legal experts from across the political spectrum, including some who are judges themselves. Her decisions — or her holding up decisions — have caused an indefinite delay in Trump’s classified documents case, which some have called one of the most important criminal cases facing the ex-president due to its national security implications.
Most recently, Cannon allowed — at Trump’s request — outside parties to weigh in on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment possibly being invalidated from the case. In another win for Trump’s legal team, Cannon allowed a hearing on a gag order request by Smith, which meant another obstacle ahead of an actual court date.
While it appears that Cannon is giving much more leeway to the defense in Trump’s case, some of the attorneys who spoke to CNN said her insistence on looking at any and every argument applies to both sides:
Veterans of her courtroom broadly agreed on one aspect of Cannon’s judicial approach: that lawyers should expect her to sharply probe any and all assertions made in her courtroom, no matter the party, with a resistance to taking anyone at their word.
One of the attorneys told CNN: “She doesn’t like any litigant to tell her what she should be doing.”
