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Mueller Top Deputy: Cannon’s Orders Are So Odd and Bizarre, One Must Ask if Trump is Threatening Her

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It is very hard to convey just how unusual it is for a trial judge to overrule a special master (of any capability) in an action he or she might take. The entire reason that a judge appoints a Special Master is to be a “judge” over that portion of the case, and if the district judge is going to micromanage the special master, it entirely defeats the purpose. And yet, at the first point that Team Trump didn’t like Special Master Judge Raymond Dearie’s rulings, Trump’s legal team went scurrying back to the loving embrace of Cannon who, as a fellow U.S. District Court Judge with barely two years experience and virtually no significant prior experience, overruled the esteemed and respected Judge Dearie, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan.

Cannon overruled Dearie on such a simple matter, wanting evidence that the FBI planted the files and any evidence that Trump declassified documents. It is entirely reasonable for Dearie to want to close off those claims from the outset. It is so beyond comprehension as to why Cannon would overrule Dearie that top former federal prosecutor, Andrew Weissman, says it forces us to ask some awful questions. Actual tweets below:

If Cannon wanted to micromanage this she shd not have appointed a Special Master. (But thank G_d she did). Talk about someone who is trying to have her cake and eat it too! She and Trump are peas in a pod.

What does Donald Trump have on Judge Cannon or her husband? Something is SO off in her decisions (and the court of appeals said as much) that it is impossible not to ask this question in all seriousness.

Judge Dearie is thinking tonight “no good deed goes unpunished.” Cannon’s treatment of Dearie, a far more senior and esteemed Article III judge, is one more piece of evidence that she is completely unfit to serve on the bench.

There is one even more awful question, and that is whether the Trump’s team somehow put the case in front of Cannon (Who really doesn’t have venue over this matter as she sits in Fort Pierce, Florida, which is 60 miles north of Palm Beach and all the federal courtrooms in West Palm Beach, handled by a rotating panel of three district judges. Cannon handles Fort Pierce, solely. By filing in Fort Pierce and not West Palm Beach, Trump’s attorneys secured the judge they wanted. It is a mystery as to why she accepted the matter. The West Palm Beach courthouse includes the chambers of U.S. Magistrate Bruce Reinhardt, who signed the search warrant, establishing a case number that would otherwise be used to file any case or demand for relief, not in chambers 60 miles north. Trump’s team went north where they would, by definition, get Cannon. They specifically selected Cannon. Weissman isn’t the only highly esteemed attorney asking questions; Harry Litman takes the same position. More below:

So again, back to Weissman asking why. Weissman served as Mueller’s top deputy in investigating Trump.  He knows virtually all there was to be known about Trump by 2019 (Other than financial matters), and Weissman is no hothead, or he wouldn’t have achieved what he has in his career. One can feel that it pains him even to bring it up.

Yet, as Weissman says, it almost has to be brought up. Attorneys with vast experience in this area of law are noting that these rulings are so aberrant, so odd, and so pro-Trump in their scope that it “looks” like there is virtually nothing she wouldn’t sign if asked. Hence the hard questions.

Jason Miciak
meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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