Judge Aileen Cannon has cooked up yet another way to slow-walk Donald Trump’s classified documents case, handing the ex-president a partial win Thursday as his lawyers work overtime to delay his trial until after the election.
Cannon wrote in an 11-page order that she’d indulge Trump’s lawyers and hold more pre-trial hearings in which they can challenge evidence gathered against Trump in relation to his alleged pilfering of classified documents.
The Florida-based district judge, who was appointed by Trump after he lost the 2020 election but before he left office, wrote that “further factual development is warranted” regarding the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, suggesting she may be receptive to claims from Trump’s lawyers that something is off about the case.
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It’s a clear win for Trump’s team, who’ve fought tooth and nail to have each of his criminal trials be delayed and delayed again. It’s been nearly two years since FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago, allegedly uncovering more than 100 classified documents, including in a bathroom, a ballroom, and stashed under dirty golf clothes.
Since that raid, Trump has contested that the search warrant was faulty, that agents had no authority to search his South Florida estate, and that investigators improperly breached attorney-client privilege.
Now, Trump’s defense will be permitted to make those same arguments in front of Cannon in a hearing. Thursday’s ruling did not list a date for the additional hearings, which likely only adds to prosecutors’ frustration as the trial’s start date has been put on ice indefinitely.
Thursday’s decision came just days after Cannon concluded another three-day hearing over prosecutors’ gag order request and Trump’s challenge to the validity of special prosecutors—an issue that had already been ruled on by other courts in the past. She is yet to issue a ruling on either.
Cannon, who reportedly refused to recuse herself from the case despite entreaties from two more senior judges, has been repeatedly accused of doing Trump’s bidding.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Cannon is in over her head. “She’s delayed this case and ruled in Trump’s favor at almost every possible turn. She’s entertained arguments that no other judge would,” he said.
Joyce Vance, a former U.S. prosecutor, shared similar thoughts in a post to X on Thursday.
“The decision to hold an evidentiary hearing after a hearing on legal arguments?” he wrote. “Hard to see that as anything other than sheer delay. Ridiculous.”
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, unsurprisingly praised Cannon’s order in a statement on Thursday, saying she’s a “highly respected” judge and that Trump’s charges are a “political sham.”
