A federal judge appointed by former President Donald J. Trump, Aileen M. Cannon, will oversee his criminal indictment regarding classified documents – at least initially. This scheduling will occur despite a higher court previously criticizing Cannon for granting Trump numerous favorable rulings during the early stages of the investigation. Cannon is expected to preside over Trump’s first appearance in Miami on Tuesday, although it remains unclear whether she will remain assigned for the entirety of his case. Judges are typically assigned cases at random, but it’s also common to hand incoming matters to judges who have dealt with related ones.
Judge Cannon presided over a heated legal dispute between Mr. Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department last year, which prevented the government from reviewing thousands of records seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago. Her ruling effectively froze a significant portion of the government’s investigation, prohibiting prosecutors from using the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago for any “investigative purpose” in connection with the case against Trump until the work of the special arbiter, the special master, was concluded. Eventually, an appeals court overturned Cannon’s ruling and permitted the probe to resume. The appeals court was highly critical of Cannon, saying she lacked jurisdiction to intervene and order the review. Additionally, the court blamed her for stopping federal investigators from using the files and stated that there was no justification for treating Trump differently from any other warrant target.
