First, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Donald Trump appointee, granted the former president’s request for a “special master” to review documents he took from the White House, a baffling decision derided by legal experts across the political spectrum. Worse, Cannon ruled that the FBI couldn’t have access to classified documents, thwarting a probe with national security implications — another head-scratching stance that an appeals court later overturned in blistering language.
Then, last week, Cannon overruled the special master that she herself appointed, saying Trump’s lawyers don’t have to provide evidence of his baseless claim that the FBI “planted” documents in his home. It has become glaringly obvious that this judge shares Trump’s corruptly transactional approach to politics. She shouldn’t preside in this case.
Trump has offered multiple unlikely explanations for why he took and stored classified federal documents (some of which dealt with nuclear weapons) at his Florida home and refused to return them until they were finally retrieved during a court-ordered search. He has claimed executive privilege, which doesn’t apply to ex-presidents. He has claimed that presidents have the power to declassify documents just “by thinking about it.” He has suggested, with zero evidence, that the FBI planted documents in his home during his search.
