'The name of the game is delay': Legal expert accuses Judge Cannon of 'calling every ball in Trump’s favor'
Responding to news that Judge Aileen Cannon has once again interceded on behalf of Donald Trump by slowing down the work being done by special master Raymond Dearie, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance accused the judge of assisting the former president with his legal delay game.
On Thursday, NBC reported that the Trump-appointed Cannon ruled the former president doesn't have to submit a sworn statement wherein he would be compelled to identify what documents he claims the FBI planted at his Mar-a-Lago resort almost two months ago as they sought stolen government documents.
Since the search ordered by the Department of Justice, Trump has alternately claimed he declassified all of the documents while also telling his supporters that he is being framed.
With special master Dearie giving Trump's attorneys a deadline to provide documentation to back up Trump's claim, Cannon, who chose Dearie on the recommendation of Trump's legal team, jumped into the fray and with a ruling that will drag out the proceedings.
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According to NBC, "The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon effectively overrules a directive from the special master she named to review evidence the FBI seized in the search Aug. 8. The special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie of New York, last week ordered Trump’s team to submit a “declaration or affidavit” about whether anything on the FBI's list of items removed from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach had not been “seized from the Premises,” meaning items that were put there by someone else."
Taking to Twitter, Vance linked to the report and added, "If Judge Cannon was going to continue calling every ball in Trump’s favor, I’m not at all sure why she felt the need to appoint a special master to review the documents the government seized from Mar-a-Lago."
She then continued, "No real surprises here. The name of the game is delay. Judge Cannon countermanded Judge Dearie’s streamlined schedule & helped Trump advance his usual delay game in litigation. That means it could be late December before DOJ can use documents it recovered from Mar-a-Lago."
She then shamed the judge by writing, "Judge Dearie told Trump’s lawyers, '[m]y view is, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.' But apparently that doesn’t hold for Judge Cannon."