{"id":100188,"date":"2025-01-13T14:02:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T22:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/13\/judge-cannon-exercises-restraint-by-slicing-special-counsel-baby-in-half\/"},"modified":"2025-01-13T14:02:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T22:02:56","slug":"judge-cannon-exercises-restraint-by-slicing-special-counsel-baby-in-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/13\/judge-cannon-exercises-restraint-by-slicing-special-counsel-baby-in-half\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Cannon Exercises Restraint By Slicing Special Counsel Baby In Half"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So wise!<br \/>\nThe post Judge Cannon Exercises Restraint By Slicing Special Counsel Baby In Half appeared first on Above the Law.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_896902\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-896902\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-896902\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-16-at-1.29.58-PM-300x283.png?resize=300%2C283&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2022-09-16 at 1.29.58 PM\" width=\"300\" height=\"283\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-896902\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aileen Cannon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Judge Aileen Cannon woke up this morning and decided that she\u2019d be only <em>half<\/em> lawless. Which is an improvement on her prior batting average! Instead of telling the DOJ it can\u2019t publish the entire special counsel report on the Trump investigations, she only purports to control half of it.<\/p>\n<p>See, what were you libs whining about? It\u2019s just a federal district judge policing the interactions between the executive and legislative branches,<em> no biggie<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>Judge Cannon was confirmed to the Southern District of Florida after Trump lost the 2020 election, and she rose to prominence by inventing jurisdiction to allow Trump to challenge the sufficiency of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant. When the case was eventually assigned to her, she spent a year abusing the special counsel and then dismissed it after <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2024\/07\/judge-cannon-finds-one-weird-trick-to-allow-trump-to-steal-classified-documents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">discovering<\/a> that special counsels were illegal.<\/p>\n<p>That dismissal is on appeal to the 11th Circuit, but the DOJ dropped the charges against Trump when he won the election in 2024, leaving his henchmen Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira holding the bag. The pendency of the appeal gave the dipshit henchmen a hook to challenge the report, which they did in Judge Cannon\u2019s courtroom <em>natch<\/em>, as well as at the 11th Circuit.<\/p>\n<p>Without holding a hearing, soliciting a response from the government, or even going through the four-factor test for injunctive relief, Judge Cannon <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648654\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648654.682.0_25.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">enjoined<\/a> the government distributing the report. And to top it off, she reserved three days after the 11th Circuit weighed in to take another crack at it.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.ca11.87822\/gov.uscourts.ca11.87822.90.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">informed<\/a> both the trial judge and the appellate panel that the report was divided into two volumes: Volume 1, which deals with the election interference case in DC; and Volume 2, which deals with the stolen documents case in Florida dismissed by Cannon. Volume 1 was intended for public release, and Volume 2 reserved for <em>in camera<\/em> review by the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary Committee during the pendency of the criminal case.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday night, the 11th Circuit <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.ca11.87822\/gov.uscourts.ca11.87822.100.1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">denied<\/a> the henchmen\u2019s motion for an injunction, but refused the DOJ\u2019s request to order Judge Cannon to knock it off. Instead the unnamed panel instructed the government to appeal her ruling, which <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.ca11.87822\/gov.uscourts.ca11.87822.103.0_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">they did<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The henchmen have taken multiple bizarre \u2014 not to say dubiously legal \u2014 positions in these proceedings. In their <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.679.0_3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">first motion<\/a>, they stated as fact that AG Garland would release the entire special counsel report publicly, violating their due process rights, by poisoning the jury pool, and also the Presidential Transition Act and the Executive Vesting Clause.<\/p>\n<p>After the DOJ informed the courts that it only intended to release Volume 1 to the public,\u00a0the henchmen switched tactics. They adamantly <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.689.0_6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">insisted<\/a> that they <em>were<\/em> mentioned in Volume 1, and they argued that their cases would be damaged by congressional leaks if Volume 2 were shared with anyone outside the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>When the DOJ responded with <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.692.0_2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">evidence<\/a> that the henchmen were <em>not<\/em> mentioned at all in Volume 1, they pivoted again in their <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.694.0_3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reply brief<\/a>. This time they argued that dirtying up Trump, by reminding Americans of that time he tried to overthrow the government, was unfair to his prior co-conspirators: \u201cThe protective order principle applies fully where the government seeks to \u2018try\u2019 in a court of public opinion a figure it identified as a co-conspirator in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And, uhhh, what if the attorneys reviewing the report are too green to appreciate that, if you read between the lines, the election interference case is actually <em>all about<\/em> Trump\u2019s body man shifting boxes into and out of the storage locker in Mar-a-Lago and trying to delete the security camera footage after it got subpoenaed?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The attorneys asserting no connection do not know the significance of certain matters addressed in the Report; they do not adequately understand the connections between the two cases and their respective investigations; they do not have a well-versed understanding of the evidence and the potential witnesses. There is anticipated to be overlap between the witnesses used in the respective cases. The facts and circumstances of the respective cases are inextricably intertwined insofar as the conduct targeted in both investigations was occurring around the same time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This morning, with her three-day stay set to expire, Judge Cannon issued her <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.697.0_4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ruling<\/a>. Even she had to admit Trump\u2019s cronies hadn\u2019t come up with a single marginally pretextual reason to bottle up Volume 1. But she insists that Volume 2 \u201cpresents contested factual and legal issues that must be resolved in an orderly, expedited basis, following full briefing and a hearing,\u201d which she scheduled for this Friday.<\/p>\n<p>That is, in effect, an order quashing the release of report to Congress, since Trump will be sworn in on Monday, and he will instruct the DOJ to burn the thing. Indeed, he\u2019s already weighed in with amicus briefs at both the District and Circuit courts claiming that the reports are illegal political interference. As has Jeff \u201cthe Oil Spill\u201d Clark who <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.696.1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">busted in<\/a> last night demanding that Judge Cannon enjoin the release of the election interference report because it might prejudice\u00a0<em>him<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also a constitutional crisis to have a wacked out trial judge in Florida telling the AG that he can\u2019t share the conclusions of a vital national security investigation with Congress. Particularly since that report documents the behavior of multiple Trump administration nominees, including Kash Patel, his pick to lead the FBI. When Patel was working at the Epoch Times, a Chinese ex-pat money laundering operation attached to a rightwing media company, he publicly claimed to have seen Trump declassify the documents at issue. But he took the Fifth before the grand jury investigating this case, and was eventually immunized and forced to testify by Judge Beryl Howell. His conduct here is certainly germane to the confirmation battle, and Congress has a right to see it.<\/p>\n<p>The 11th Circuit has shown no inclination to rouse itself for this task. But maybe Trump \u2014 <em>whoops, I mean Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira<\/em> \u2014 would like to take one more flyer at SCOTUS to see if they can\u2019t peel Justice Barrett off to block release of Volume 1.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/67490070\/united-states-v-trump\/?filed_after=&amp;filed_before=&amp;entry_gte=&amp;entry_lte=&amp;order_by=desc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">US v. Trump<\/a>\u00a0[SDFL Docket via Court Listener]<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/68955302\/united-states-v-donald-trump\/?filed_after=&amp;filed_before=&amp;entry_gte=&amp;entry_lte=&amp;order_by=desc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">US v. Trump<\/a>\u00a0[11th Circuit Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n<div class=\"wpds-c-PJLV wpds-c-PJLV-bHCGeL-isStandardLayoutAd-true article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"cb dn db-ns\" data-qa=\"article-body-ad\" data-testid=\"article-body-ad-desktop\">\n<div class=\"hide-for-print relative flex justify-center content-box items-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5DollarFeminist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawandchaospod.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/law-and-chaos\/id1727769913\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So wise! The post Judge Cannon Exercises Restraint By Slicing Special Counsel Baby In Half appeared first on Above the Law. Aileen Cannon Judge Aileen Cannon woke up this morning and decided that she\u2019d be only half lawless. Which is an improvement on her prior batting average! Instead of telling the DOJ it can\u2019t publish [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":100189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-16-at-1.29.58-PM-lpRqSh.png?fit=924%2C872&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}