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Who is Aileen Cannon? In blow to Trump, judge’s order on special master review in Mar-a-Lago case overturned

The panel ruled unanimously that Florida federal judge Aileen Cannon had erred in appointing Raymond Dearie to vet the documents seized by FBI

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday, December 1, that US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order in September to appoint a special master to vet nearly 11,000 documents seized by the FBI from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort should be dismissed.

The ruling by a three-judge panel, two of whom are Trump appointees, read, “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so. Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations. Accordingly, we agree with the government that the district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction, and that dismissal of the entire proceeding is required."

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The ruling further stated, "The district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction in this case. For that reason, we VACATE the September 5 order on appeal and REMAND with instructions for the district court to DISMISS the underlying civil action."

Following the ruling, many were quick to appreciate the move. One said, "A no-brainer decision. Aileen Cannon is one of the most incompetent or corrupt judges in history. She should be impeached and removed from office immediately!" Another individual too asked for her removal and questioned, "Can they remove her from the bench next? Seriously, never been a more fraudulent ruling in my life." 

On September 5, Cannon ordered the appointment of a special master, granting a request by Trump, who is under investigation for retaining highly classified government records at his Florida home after leaving office in January 2021, to determine whether the documents found contain either attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. The Department of Justice appealed the judge’s decision and said "appointing a special master would slow the government’s effort to determine whether classified documents were still missing," reports NewsNation.

The decision comes just two weeks after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former head of the Justice Department’s public corruption section, Jack Smith, to serve as a special counsel overseeing the Mar-a-Lago probe as well as an investigation into alleged efforts by Trump to interfere with the certification of the presidential election in 2020, states Politico.

Who is Aileen Cannon?

Cannon, born in 1981 in Cali, Colombia, is a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She was nominated by President Donald Trump on May 21, 2020, and confirmed by a US Senate vote of 56-21 on November 12, 2020.