A spark of panic and fear is rippling through legal experts and anyone who’s been closely following the stolen classified documents case against Donald Trump, after Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon — who’s been inundated with questions and concerns about her own ethics, proceeding over this particular case — submitted a description of two recent filings with “worrisome” wording. Both of those filings were in support of a dismissal of this entire case against the former president.
The concern hails from a paperless order filed by Cannon to the Florida federal court, in which she accepted two amicus briefs, one from the America First Legal Foundation and one from former Reagan-era Attorney General Ed Meese, both of which called on the Trump-appointed Florida judge to dismiss the case against the man who got her on the bench, according to court records.
Cannon’s order reads:
The Court has reviewed the motions and finds that the proposed amicus bring to the Court’s attention relevant matter that may be of considerable help to the Court in resolving the cited pretrial motions.”
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Former federal prosecutor and popular MSNBC commentator Andrew Weissmann immediately took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to express his concern over Cannon’s “worrisome” verbiage in this new filing.
“Ok to take amicus,” Weissmann wrote. “But the commentary from the court is worrisome.”
Ok to take amicus but the commentary from the court is worrisome. https://t.co/w8NRHBqItJ
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) March 6, 2024
One of the aforementioned briefs was filed by America First, a nonprofit organization run by former Trump aide Stephen Miller. Daily Beast confirms that the Miller-back brief takes a special focus on fighting “anti-white bigotry.” While both briefs focus on dismissing the case against Trump, Meese’s document takes a more legalese approach, writing, “Smith is the classic ’emperor with no clothes.’ He has no more authority to represent the United States in this Court than Tom Brady, Lionel Messi, or Kanye West.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Donald Trump with 37 criminal counts in connection to the documents case, which include charges related to willfully retaining national defense intel. Cannon has given Smith a deadline of March 15th to respond to these briefs.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney was among those to post the motion to social media, with a specific note that Cannon’s verbiage is eerily similar to that of the Supreme Court.
“It essentially means the amicus briefs have information in them that neither party brought to her attention,” he explained.
JUST IN: Judge Cannon says two amicus briefs filed by Trump-aligned lawyers “may be of considerable help” to her on Trump’s motions to dismiss.
1 says NARA referral to DOJ was deficient: https://t.co/YZyto6Zp9O
1 says Jack Smith appointment was invalid: https://t.co/R9Yfxh4hQU pic.twitter.com/SYwf1z7OBO
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 6, 2024
Commenters on Cheney’s post were not as guarded in their responses, with Michael VanDerMar writing, “‘Considerable help to the court.’ Did she mean to say ‘considerable help to the defendant’?” while attorney Bradley Moss simply lamented the whole thing with a “Sigh.”
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
