On Thursday, Judge Aileen Cannon went against the demand from Raymond Dearie, the special master she appointed at the request of Trump, in the latest back-and-forth about the classified materials the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon ruled that Trump’s legal team does not need to comply with a demand from Dearie that they must formally state by October 7 if they believe the list of items the FBI say they removed from Mar-a-Lago is inaccurate.
The decision means that Trump or his team will not have to testify or explain why he believes the FBI may have “planted” evidence against him during the August raid, an unsubstantiated claim he and his supporters frequently attempted to push.
Trump will also not have to say specifically which of the documents he says he declassified before he left the White House, a disputed claim he has often made, which has not been backed up by his lawyers in official court filings.
“There shall be no separate requirement on Plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the Seized Materials, to lodge ex ante final objections to the accuracy of Defendant’s Inventory, its descriptions, or its content,” Cannon wrote.
On Thursday, Cannon also sided with Trump’s team by extending the deadline for Dearie to review the thousands of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago to determine if any are protected by attorney-client or special privilege to December 16.
The former president’s counsel had asked for a deadline extension as they were struggling to hire an independent vendor to host the documents so all parties could see them, with Trump’s lawyers claiming that the total number of pages needed to be reviewed is 200,000.
This is not the first time that Cannon has backed Trump in the classified document investigation, greenlighting Trump’s legal team’s request for a special master to be appointed in the first place—despite the Department of Justice (DoJ) arguing it was not necessary.
Cannon also blocked the DoJ from using the the classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in its criminal investigation until the special master’s review is complete. A panel of judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later overruled the decision, allowing the DoJ to continue its investigation.
However, Thursday’s six-page ruling was the first time that Cannon has gone against Dearie while siding with Trump.
“It is odd for a judge to appoint a special master, and then to overrule his decisions, especially on such an early preliminary matter,” Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former U.S attorney, told Newsweek.
“Nonetheless, I think this is a minor development in the case that has no long-term consequences, and that Judge Dearie will soldier on.”
Cannon, a U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of Florida who was nominated to the bench by Trump in May 2020, has often been criticized by legal experts for her decision-making during the Mar-a-Lago documents investigations, with Thursday’s ruling being no different.
Tristen Snell, lawyer and former assistant attorney general for New York state, tweeted: “Apparently it is now legal to go on TV and social media and say the government planted evidence and that you declassified documents with your mind — and a judge will just accept that as the truth, without requiring evidence and arguments in court? Way to go, ‘Judge’ Cannon.”
Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks tweeted that Cannon’s actions were “shocking” and her latest decision “outrageous,” while also suggesting Dearie may even resign.
“Why have Special Master if you plan to run the review yourself?” Wine-Banks tweeted.
