Federal Judge Aileen Cannon rebuffed suggestions from two senior judges, including the chief justice of her district, to pass former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case to another judge, according to The New York Times. After Cannon, a Trump appointee, was randomly assigned to the case in June 2023, chief justice for the Southern District of Florida, Cecilia Altanoga, reportedly approached her on multiple occasions to urge her to pass on the case. According to the Times, Altanoga and another senior judge argued that Cannon wasn’t located near the Miami courthouse where the trial would be held. Unlike the Miami courthouse, Cannon’s courthouse doesn’t have a secure room to store classified information, something that has since been built at taxpayers’ expense. When Cannon refused to drop the case, Altanoga also suggested that it would be “bad optics” for Cannon to take the case after she made a shocking ruling in Trump’s favor in a separated, but related, lawsuit related to the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Times reported. Cannon, who has slow-walked the case and made multiple rulings in Trump’s favor, and Altanoga declined to comment to the Times.
