The question of transparency and accountability lingers as the judge sides with Trump to delay his document case trial.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Alene, who has represented the Northern District of Alabama, has raised doubts over District Judge Aileen Cannon’s refusal to enforce deadlines over Trump’s case proceedings.
She posted on X, where she mentioned the way Judge Cannon sided with Trump to delay his case of the classified documents as she refused to announce a deadline as a move to prevent a trial. She stated that the judge had no intention of letting the case go to trial before the elections.
Why the discontent?
Alene’s post was the response to Cannon’s ruling where she denied a motion by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was handling the case against Trump, who requested Trump’s attorneys to disclose the evidence which was decided for May.
She felt Judge Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, was favoring the Republicans over her responsibility as a Judge to be transparent with her decision, while also trying to prevent a trial against him until the elections.
The critics see it as a strategy by Trump to delay the matter until the elections as the case might disrupt his chances of presidency.
He is currently facing 91 felony charges for four different cases and if he wins the elections, he will have the power to dissolve the charges completely.
The Classified Document Case and Other Charges
This case includes 40 felony charges against Trump regarding his mishandling of classified documents that a president has access to during his tenure.
The investigation against him revealed that after the 2021 election result, he deliberately carried along various classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Presidential Records Act states that these documents become the property of the National Archives and Records Administration after the president leaves office.
However, NARA did not receive all the documents and found some missing from the record. An FBI investigation was held to look into the matter which found evidence of Trump’s deliberate attempt to hide the documents.
These documents included classified information about US nuclear secrets along with information related to the nation’s defense. The FBI retrieved up to 100 such documents.
In November 2022, the investigation was taken over by Jack Smith as special counsel to look into Trump’s unlawful possession of documents.
Later in June 2023, Trump was charged with 37 misconducts for deliberately retaining the documents. The charges increased up to 40 after 3 more were added to the list.
Currently, he is dealing with 91 charges under four criminal cases including two federal and two state charges. The federal involving the Jan 6 election and the classified documents case whereas the state charges include NY falsifying business records and Georgia 2020 election cases.
However, in a desperate attempt to continue his election campaign for 2024, he has denied the charges as a political agenda of the opposition to deny his presidency.
Even though he calls it a political stunt he has refused to let the investigation carry on in his Mar-A-Lago home, creating further suspicion over his behaviour.
Judge Aileen Cannon siding with Trump’s attorneys to delay the trial concerns critics like Joyce Alene, as it infringes upon the transparency and accountability of a judge’s decision over a case like this.
It also raises questions about leadership, if Trump wins the 2024 elections, it would be a political drawback and a failure of democracy as a whole.
