Democrat Tim Kaine defended his 2020 vote confirming Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon to her post amid the latest controversy surrounding Cannon, who is overseeing the federal criminal case against former President Donald Trump.
Kaine and 11 other Democratic senators voted in favor of confirming Cannon to the federal bench on November 12, 2020. Cannon, who now serves as the U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, is currently facing calls for recusal in the Trump confidential documents case.
Cannon, who made headlines for ruling in favor of the former president last year, is scheduled to oversee the proceedings in the case, in which Trump is facing 37 criminal charges related to the mishandling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
Asked about whether he had regrets on his 2020 vote, a spokesperson for Kaine told Newsweek that the Virginia senator "evaluates each judicial nominee based on their entire record that exists at the time of the nomination."
"That's what he did with this judge—who was ranked qualified by the American Bar Association and received bipartisan support—and with all nominees," the spokesperson said.
At the time of Cannon's nomination, she had been a lawyer for 12 years, the minimum experience threshold required to meet the American Bar Association's (ABA) qualification standard. The ABA rated the judge "qualified."
The other Democrats who voted to confirm Cannon include Senators Tom Carper of Delaware, Chris Coons of Delaware, Catherine Cortez Mastro of Nevada, Dianne Feinstein of California, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Their offices did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
Former Senators Doug Jones of Alabama and Patrick Leahy of Vermont also voted to confirm Cannon.
Last year, Cannon was widely criticized for ruling in Trump's favor when the former president filed a countersuit challenging the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) seizure of documents from his Palm Beach Home. She granted Trump a "special master" to review the evidence and to determine what would be admissible in court—an order that was quickly reversed by a conservative appeals court panel that found Cannon wrongly exercised jurisdiction over the case. Trump's lawsuit was dismissed.
Although Cannon was randomly assigned to the criminal case, as she has a 50 percent chance of overseeing the cases in West Palm Beach, her appointment has sparked calls from top legal experts, like former White House chief ethics lawyers Richard Painter and Norman Eisen, for Cannon to recuse herself from the case.
"Because her earlier handling of this case went well outside the judicial norm and was roundly criticized by the Court of Appeals, reasonable observers of this case could question her impartiality," Painter, Eisen and Fred Wertheimer, the attorney and president of Democracy 21, wrote in an op-ed for Slate.
As the judge presiding over the case, Cannon will have purview over the speed of the trial, jury selection, admissible evidence, the power to acquit, and sentencing, should Trump be found guilty.
Cannon could still recuse herself from the case, but it remains unclear as to whether the judge plans to.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
