U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the Trump appointee appointed to supervise his classified materials case in Florida, made two key errors in a June trial, citing legal experts and a court transcript. The transcript indicated that Cannon barred a defendant’s family and the wider public from jury selection, an apparent violation of the constitutional right to a public trial. According to Reuters, she also failed to swear in the prospective jury pool—a required step in which potential jurors take an oath of truth—which caused her to repeat jury selection.

Who is Judge Aileen Cannon?

Trump named Aileen Cannon to the court in late 2020 and earlier she ruled in favour of him in 2022, ordering the US government to halt its use of materials taken from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Cannon, 42, was born in Cali, Colombia, to an American father and a Cuban mother who fled the nation as a child during the 1950s Cuban Revolution. Cannon earned her bachelor’s degree from Duke and her law degree from the University of Michigan.

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Cannon has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2005. Trump nominated her to serve as a United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida judge at the request of Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. She will be confirmed in November 2020.

Cannon presided over the civil case Trump v. United States, in which Trump sought the appointment of a special master to analyse papers obtained during the FBI investigation of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022.

She granted Trump’s request, directing the Department of Justice to divulge the previously sealed list of confiscated materials and to cease its review of all seized information. The Department of Justice appealed the verdict, which was overturned by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Cannon eventually dismissed the case due to a lack of jurisdiction. The present criminal prosecution against Trump originated from the document seizure at the heart of that civil action, and Cannon is once again presiding.