Former President Donald Trump was visibly angered by the lack of respect shown towards Judge Aileen Cannon.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his team of Hacks and Thugs, led by Merrick Garland and Deranged Jack Smith, are putting in extra hours in an attempt to unlawfully intimidate and harass esteemed Federal Judge Aileen Cannon,” Trump stated in a post on TruthSocial. “They are resorting to hurling awful insults at her, wrongly threatening her with impeachment, and showing disrespect, all because they want her to behave like the dishonest, politically biased, and conflicted Judges in New York, rather than the fair and impartial Judge that she truly is.”
Amid the ongoing disputes between Special Counsel Jack Smith and Judge Cannon, who is overseeing the former president’s case in Florida regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents, Trump made a post.
Donald Trump, the anticipated Republican nominee in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, has entered a plea of not guilty to the charges brought against him. He adamantly denies any involvement in any illicit activities and maintains that the documents he held onto were of a personal nature.
Last month, Judge Cannon issued an order requesting the prosecution and defense to submit potential instructions for the jury regarding the charges against the former president. In the jury instructions, Cannon seemed to imply that the jury could view the classified documents as personal belongings of Trump, as per the Presidential Records Act.
Smith strongly countered the order, asserting that it is built upon an undisclosed and fundamentally flawed legal premise.
Smith’s office stated that both scenarios are based on an erroneous legal premise. They argue that the distinction made by the Presidential Records Act between “personal” and “Presidential” records does not determine whether a former President is authorized, under the Espionage Act, to possess highly classified documents and store them in an unsecure facility.
Legal experts have suggested that Smith could potentially request Cannon’s recusal from the case amidst their ongoing disputes.
During his appearance on CNN’s News Central, Elie Honig, a legal commentator and attorney, was asked if Smith could request the removal of Cannon. Honig stated that while it is possible, such a motion would be extremely uncommon.
According to Honig, in certain cases, prosecutors may request the removal of a federal judge from a case. This procedure, though quite drastic, can be initiated by either appealing to the judge or directly to an appeals court. However, if the request is unsuccessful, it can lead to an uncomfortable situation where the prosecutors themselves have requested the judge’s removal.
