Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner said Friday that U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon is taking former President Donald Trump's classified documents case in a "ridiculous direction."
The former president has been accused of violating the Espionage Act for mishandling classified documents by keeping them at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort residence, upon leaving the White House in January 2021 and has also been accused of obstructing the government's efforts to retrieve the sensitive material in a case brought on by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims the case is politically motivated as he is the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, has faced scrutiny over her handling of pre-trial proceedings as the case against the former president continues to drag on without a set trial date. Critics of Cannon have called for her recusal from the case.
Gertner, who is based in Massachusetts, told Politico in an article published on Friday that Smith should move for Cannon's recusal, saying, "It's clear that she is going in a ridiculous direction."
She added: "The government could be without recourse after a trial begins...I don't even know why they indulged her...I think they need to stop playing games and move to disqualify her."
Newsweek reached out to the United States Courts via online form for comment.
Gertner's calls for recusal come on the heels of dueling court filings between Smith and Cannon.
Last month, Cannon asked Smith's team and Trump's lawyers to file jury instructions based on two hypothetical scenarios.
In the first scenario, Cannon required both parties would outline for a jury's consideration whether a record retained by a former president at the end of their time in office is their personal property and whether the government had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that "it is personal or presidential using the definitions set forth" in the Presidential Records Act (PRA).
The second scenario required by Cannon would lay out the arguments in which a president "has sole authority under the PRA to categorize records as personal or presidential" during their presidency.
Smith argued in a filing on Tuesday that "both scenarios rest on an unstated and fundamentally flawed legal premise."
He added: "The PRA's distinction between personal and presidential records has no bearing on whether a former President's possession of documents containing national defense information is authorized under the Espionage Act, and the PRA should play no role in the jury instructions..."
On Thursday, Cannon denied a motion by Trump to dismiss the case on the grounds that the documents were considered personal under the PRA. However, she did defend her two hypothetical scenarios, which include the PRA.
"Separately, to the extent the Special Counsel demands an anticipatory finalization of jury instructions prior to trial, prior to a charge conference, and prior to the presentation of trial defenses and evidence, the Court declines that demand as unprecedented and unjust," Cannon wrote.
She added that the court's order to ask for preliminary draft instructions on certain counts should not be interpreted as anything other than "a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties' competing positions..."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
