Judge Who Tossed Trump’s Docs Case Repeatedly Violated Disclosure Rule: Report
Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon failed to disclose her attendance at several right-wing judicial seminars — including one that took place after she began overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, which she ultimately threw out — in apparent violation of federal court rules.
According to a Tuesday report from ProPublica, in May of 2023, Cannon attended a swanky banquet hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School — one of the leading conservative law schools in the nation. The school was renamed in honor of the late Supreme Court justice after a $20 million donation brokered by Supreme Court architect Leonard Leo, who controls a billion-dollar dark money fund and serves as co-chair chairman of of the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative lawyers network.
Cannon, a longtime member of the Federalist Society, attended a lecture and dinner alongside members of the society, Scalia’s family members, and prominent federal judges, according to materials obtained by ProPublica. Cannon submitted several reimbursement requests to the law school related to her travel expenses.
Federal judiciary rules require judges to report travel reimbursements for such events within 30 days. Cannon made no such disclosure within the designated time limit, and it’s not the first time.
ProPublica’s report builds on two disclosure omissions identified in May by NPR. In 2021 and 2022, Cannon and her husband attended week-long colloquiums hosted by George Mason at a luxury resort in Montana. Cannon did not post the required disclosures until approached by NPR. Clerk of Court Angela Noble blamed the oversight on technical issues and told NPR that “Any omissions to the website are completely inadvertent.”
In a separate statement to ProPublica, a clerk for Cannon stated that while the judge had submitted the necessary disclosure, they had not been posted on the website. “Judges often do not realize they must input the information twice,” they said.
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Cannon’s failure to disclose invitations to expensive educational events hosted by prominent conservative groups is particularly concerning given her short tenure as her judge and her role in one of the most prominent criminal cases in the country.
In July, Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, ruling that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith — who heads the Justice Department’s two cases against the former president — was unconstitutional. The decision, which was appealed by the Justice Department, put a spotlight on past rulings by Cannon — a Trump appointee — seen as overly favorable to the former president.
In 2022, Cannon was sharply rebuked by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after granting the former president a request for a “special master” to review troves of classified documents seized during the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago. The court of appeals wrote that the unprecedented nature of Trump’s case did not give “the judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation.”
In June, The New York Times reported that senior judges in the Southern District of Florida had advised Cannon to pass the case along to a more experienced judge — and one with fewer questions surrounding their objectivity.
But for all of the criticism leveled against Cannon by experienced legal minds, the former president loves her. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Trump has privately suggested that Cannon will be a model for judicial picks in a potential second term — and that Republicans “need more like her.”