Fast-forward to today\u2019s ruling<\/a>. Cannon writes that releasing Volume II of Smith\u2019s report (the portion addressing the classified documents) will stay behind Cannon\u2019s ever-expanding shield of judicial paternalism as it would cause \u201cmanifest injustice\u201d to the former defendants because Smith, \u201cacting without lawful authority,\u201d obtained an indictment that was ultimately dismissed. <\/p>\n Originally, Cannon justified blocking release because appeals were pending for Trump\u2019s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Then Trump took over the DOJ, those cases evaporated, and Cannon\u2019s excuse<\/a> went with them. American Oversight and the Knight First Amendment Institute sought to intervene and asked for the report to be released.<\/p>\n Cannon responded by doing absolutely nothing \u2014 for a really long time. Like, the Eleventh Circuit had to get all \u201cundue delay\u201d to get her to work. Cannon did what any aspiring MAGA judicial influencer would do and invited the parties to seek \u201cappropriate relief.\u201d<\/p>\n You can probably guess what happened next.<\/p>\n Trump, through a personal lawyer, filed a motion asking Cannon to permanently block release of the report. The DOJ \u2014 that is, Trump\u2019s personal law firm<\/a> \u2014 helpfully chimed in to say it agreed the report shouldn\u2019t be released outside the department. Nauta and De Oliveira went even further, asking Cannon to order that all copies of the report be destroyed\u2026 which, even Cannon declined to go that far. Growth!<\/p>\n Cannon\u2019s ruling locks the report away, insulating Trump from the political and historical consequences of a prosecution that never quite made it to trial. All because rather than act as a \u201ccheck\u201d or \u201cbalance\u201d to executive authority, Aileen Cannon uses her federal judgeship to give an assist to her benefactor.<\/p>\n The post In Shocking Twist, Judge Aileen Cannon Sides With Donald Trump. Again.<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you were worried that Judge Aileen Cannon might someday surprise everyone by rediscovering the concept of judicial independence, congratulations, today is not that day.<\/p>\n In a move that will shock exactly no one who has watched Cannon\u2019s extremely online career arc, the Trump-appointed judge permanently blocked the release of the special counsel report authored by Jack Smith in the classified documents case. The reason? According to Cannon, disclosure is barred \u201cdue to the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Smith and Attorney General Bondi\u2019s deliberative-process determination.\u201d<\/p>\n Cannon, you\u2019ll recall, showed\u00a0her whole ass<\/a>\u00a0as a\u00a0partisan hack<\/a>\u00a0willing to do\u00a0the bidding<\/a>\u00a0of Donald Trump, but her\u00a0lack of experience<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0chaotic courtroom management<\/a>\u00a0are just as\u00a0noteworthy<\/a>. But she really upped her status as \u201cfavorite judge of the most aggressively red-hatted MAGA crowd\u201d when she dismissed the criminal case against Trump. Her theory \u2014 that Smith\u2019s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional \u2014 was\u2026 creative. So creative, in fact, that it flew directly into conflict<\/a> with decades of precedent. But after Trump won the 2024 election, the DOJ dropped the appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to today\u2019s ruling<\/a>. Cannon writes that releasing Volume II of Smith\u2019s report (the portion addressing the classified documents) will stay behind Cannon\u2019s ever-expanding shield of judicial paternalism as it would cause \u201cmanifest injustice\u201d to the former defendants because Smith, \u201cacting without lawful authority,\u201d obtained an indictment that was ultimately dismissed. <\/p>\n Originally, Cannon justified blocking release because appeals were pending for Trump\u2019s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Then Trump took over the DOJ, those cases evaporated, and Cannon\u2019s excuse<\/a> went with them. American Oversight and the Knight First Amendment Institute sought to intervene and asked for the report to be released.<\/p>\n Cannon responded by doing absolutely nothing \u2014 for a really long time. Like, the Eleventh Circuit had to get all \u201cundue delay\u201d to get her to work. Cannon did what any aspiring MAGA judicial influencer would do and invited the parties to seek \u201cappropriate relief.\u201d<\/p>\n You can probably guess what happened next.<\/p>\n Trump, through a personal lawyer, filed a motion asking Cannon to permanently block release of the report. The DOJ \u2014 that is, Trump\u2019s personal law firm<\/a> \u2014 helpfully chimed in to say it agreed the report shouldn\u2019t be released outside the department. Nauta and De Oliveira went even further, asking Cannon to order that all copies of the report be destroyed\u2026 which, even Cannon declined to go that far. Growth!<\/p>\n Cannon\u2019s ruling locks the report away, insulating Trump from the political and historical consequences of a prosecution that never quite made it to trial. All because rather than act as a \u201ccheck\u201d or \u201cbalance\u201d to executive authority, Aileen Cannon uses her federal judgeship to give an assist to her benefactor.<\/p>\n The post In Shocking Twist, Judge Aileen Cannon Sides With Donald Trump. Again.<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you were worried that Judge Aileen Cannon might someday surprise everyone by rediscovering the concept of judicial independence, congratulations, today is not that day. In a move that will shock exactly no one who has watched Cannon\u2019s extremely online career arc, the Trump-appointed judge permanently blocked the release of the special counsel report authored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144669,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-e0oySc.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144668","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"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n