Some authorized consultants had publicly chided Cannon for her ruling, claiming that she was overly-deferential to Trump’s authorized crew and was usually untested. Trump’s former lawyer common Invoice Barr, for instance, informed Fox Information that the ruling “was mistaken” and “deeply flawed in a variety of methods.”
“She is clearly very vivid. Clearly very conservative. And clearly very inexperienced,” mentioned an skilled South Florida lawyer who was granted anonymity as a result of he may have instances earlier than Cannon sooner or later.
Cannon didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The court docket had randomly-assigned the Mar-a-Lago case to the 41-year-old Cannon. However in April, Trump had sought to get an unrelated racketeering lawsuit in opposition to Hillary Clinton earlier than the Southern District of Florida, the place Cannon is a choose. That case went to Clinton-appointee U.S. District Decide Donald Middlebrooks as a substitute, and Trump requested him to recuse himself from the case.
Middlebrooks took discover of Trump’s try and get a choose seen as pleasant in that case and particularly talked about Cannon in court docket paperwork.
“I be aware that Plaintiff filed this lawsuit within the Fort Pierce division of this District, the place just one federal choose sits: Decide Aileen Cannon, who Plaintiff appointed in 2020,” Middlebrooks wrote. “Regardless of the percentages, this case landed with me as a substitute.”
“And when Plaintiff is in litigation earlier than a choose that he himself appointed, he doesn’t are likely to advance these identical types of bias issues,” he added.
Whereas the Mar-a-Lago case is by far probably the most excessive profile case earlier than Cannon, she additionally oversaw a legal case involving Paul Hoeffer, a 60-year-old Palm Seaside Gardens man who threatened to behead Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a progressive who’s a daily goal for conservative criticism.
Federal prosecutors sought a three-and-half-year sentence for Hoeffer however Cannon gave him 18-months in federal jail.
Cannon’s background suits the profile of many Trump judicial appointees: She is younger, which implies she is going to serve on the federal bench probably for many years, and is a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative authorized group that has large sway over Republican-appointed judges.
Born in Colombia, Cannon attended Duke College and graduated from the College of Michigan regulation college. She labored from 2009-2012 within the Washington workplace of regulation agency Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP after which as an assistant U.S. lawyer within the Southern District of Florida.
She was approached a couple of place on the federal judiciary in June 2019, when Sen. Marco Rubio’s workplace despatched an e mail indicating that the Florida Republican wished to think about her for a emptiness within the district.
Her utility was submitted that month to Rubio’s Judicial Advisory Committee for the Southern District of Florida. She later interviewed with that committee and GOP Florida Sen. Rick Scott’s common counsel earlier than touring to Washington to interview with the White Home and Justice Division authorized officers.
The Senate confirmed her on Nov. 11, 2020 by a 56-21 vote. A dozen Democrats supported her nomination.
Cannon’s solely political contribution was $100 to Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ first marketing campaign in 2018, in response to marketing campaign finance information.
