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Isolated and inexperienced: A portrait of the judge overseeing Trump’s documents case from veterans of her courtroom
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Judge Aileen Cannon had been on the federal bench for little more than a year when a senior judge offered to preside over one of her first criminal trials in her isolated south Florida courthouse.
“It’s very lonely,” Senior Judge Paul C. Huck told CNN of Fort Pierce, a small fishing and citrus community on the edge of the Southern District of Florida where Cannon is the only federal judge. “It’s a pretty sleepy town with a pretty sleepy courtroom.”
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Huck ultimately presided over the March 2022 criminal trial not because Cannon needed help, he said, but because he enjoys volunteering for trials in courts across Florida.
“I thought I’d go up there and just spend some time with her and get to know her better,” Huck said of Cannon, whom he recalled as “very smart” and “very personable.”
Two years later, Cannon is now presiding over one of the most consequential and complex cases in America: the criminal prosecution of former president Donald Trump over his handling of the nation’s secrets. And she’s attracting nationwide scrutiny for how she’s approached the case.
Since Trump was first indicted a year ago, Cannon has dragged out the proceedings in ways that have flummoxed legal scholars and put a trial initially scheduled to begin last month on hold indefinitely.
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.
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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 Huck took over one of them.
For this account of Cannon’s judicial demeanor, CNN spoke to ten attorneys who have had cases both criminal and civil before her. The lawyers spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because of the professional and ethical risks of speaking to press about a sitting federal judge in front of whom they practice. |