It would be easy to get angry at this point about how law and order is alleged to apply to everyone in America, but former President Donald Trump keeps being issued get-out-of-jail-free cards by judges he appointed.
It happened again Monday when the judge overseeing Trump’s federal case for allegedly taking and concealing classified documents after leaving office decided to rule counter to decades of established law and precedence to just toss the case out of court.
That’s frustrating to fair-minded people, no matter what political party you belong to. We’re told as children that nobody is above the law in America and we hope as adults to see that hold true.
But this would be a good time to press pause on our frustration because U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, nominated in April 2020 by Trump for the Southern District of Florida, is likely to face some judgment about her judgment.
We’ve been here before. It didn’t go so well for Cannon.
Judge Aileen Cannon did her part in the Trump document case
Cannon’s ruling has nothing to do with the merits of the case. Instead, she grabbed hold of a fringe legal argument that Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed in November 2022 by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigation, was improperly selected.
Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged last summer. His entire legal strategy since then has been to delay delay delay while painting the prosecution as a political vendetta as he seeks another term as president.
In this, Cannon has always seemed more like an eager collaborator than an impartial judge, dragging out the process and leaving legal motions in limbo while sparring with prosecutors. All the while, the clock is ticking down to the Nov. 5 general election. A Trump victory would make the case simply vanish.
Decision to throw out document case started years ago
One of Trump’s opening gambits in the case in 2022, months before charges were filed, was to ask Cannon to prevent prosecutors from examining the thousands of documents it found – some marked confidential or top secret – in boxes strewn across the ex-president’s private club in Florida while executing a search warrant.
Cannon played along, shutting down the prosecutors and appointing a “special master” to sift through the documents.
Smith appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, known for a certain right-leaning tilt on the political scale, where the case was heard by three judges, including two appointed by Trump.
Those judges, in December 2022, reversed Cannon in a 21-page ruling that ended with what amounted to a scolding for her for what amounted to an attempt at a “radical reordering” to limit how federal judges act in criminal investigations.
“The law is clear,” they wrote. “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.”
Let’s not forget the Supreme Court’s role in all this
That’s the way the law is supposed to work. Everyone is equal. Unless, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court decides otherwise.
The other recent development that has law-and-order fans freaking out was the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling that Trump has immunity for any “official acts” he took as president while attempting to overturn the 2020 election but can still be tried in a separate case in federal court in Washington, D.C., for any “unofficial acts” he took in that attempt.
Justice Clarence Thomas joined the court’s other six conservatives, three appointed by Trump, in that 6-3 ruling but couldn’t resist helping Trump on a legal point that was not part of the case – writing a concurring opinion that questioned whether Smith’s appointment as special counsel was legal.
Thomas opened the door for Cannon to toss the documents charges against Trump. And that’s just what she did.
Trump legal cases still out there to be dismissed
Cannon tucked her ruling Monday into a news cycle already ramped up to full bore, between the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday and his selection of a vice presidential running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday evening.
Trump, who briefly called for unity after surviving Saturday, was right back at his usual rhetoric Monday, casting his legal troubles as “Political Attacks” while celebrating Cannon’s ruling on his social media site, calling for dismissal “of ALL the Witch Hunts.”
That included the case pending in Washington, a pending criminal case in Georgia on attempts to overturn the 2020 election there, the civil case where he was found liable for sexual assault, the criminal case in New York where he was convicted on 34 felony counts, and a civil case where he was fined $454 million for running a real estate business rife with fraud.
So many cases. And only one Judge Cannon.
Possible new member of SCOTUS?
Trump sees all politics as transactional – if he does something for you, he will expect something from you. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and avid social media troll, said the quiet part out loud Monday in a post on the site previously known as Twitter with Cannon’s official portrait, calling her “Future Supreme Court Justice Cannon.”
Speaking of the Supreme Court, the justices took a pass in October 2022 when Trump asked them to overturn the 11th Circuit, which had just overturned Cannon.
If the special counsel successfully appeals the new Cannon ruling and revives the documents case, Trump will certainly try his luck again with our highest court.
Then we’ll find out just how many get-out-of-jail-free cards the conservative justices are willing to deal him.
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This article was originally appeared on USA TODAY
