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Judge Cannon Dismisses Trump’s Classified Documents Case: Carpe Diem!

Monday, July 15, 2024 at 4:01 PM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

For Judge Aileen Cannon carpe diem is Latin for Seize the dismissal

A “breathtakingly misguided” ruling

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is right. Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling to dismiss the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump is “breathtakingly misguided.”

But nobody should be surprised. After all, with her incomprehensible rulings on procedural motions, Cannon dropped breadcrumbs that led inexorably to this dismissal.

Procedural delays and Trump’s strategy

This ruling spared Trump from facing what legal experts deemed the most perilous of his four criminal trials. His lawyers argued that appointing Special Counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution. She eagerly bought it.

Carpe diem! Cannon was clearly out of her depth. Exhibit A:  the Court of Appeals overturned two of her early rulings. No doubt that’s why she continually delayed other substantive rulings.

cartoon of Judge Cannon sitting as Trump's defense attorney

Judicial incompetence boosting ambitions

As it happened, her procedural delays aligned perfectly with Trump’s strategy of postponing the trial until after the November election. But Cannon couldn’t believe her dumb luck when Justice Clarence Thomas threw her a lifeline in Trump’s immunity case.

Thomas opined that Smith had no right to prosecute Trump. Canon seized on his specious constitutional reasoning to dismiss this case. In doing so, she placed herself at the top of the list for a Supreme Court nomination if Trump is reelected. Not bad for an ignorant political hack in judicial garb.

But when it comes to dumb luck, Cannon has nothing on Trump: The Supreme Court ruled that Trump has absolute immunity, and that attempted assassination has even Never-Trumpers now hailing him as a resurrected savior. And she just dismissed his classified documents case.

The fallacy of presuming election victory

Everyone, from influential billionaires to foreign leaders, is hedging their bets by treating Trump’s reelection as a foregone conclusion. Mind you, they are aping everyone who treated Hillary’s election in 2016 as a foregone conclusion. But this fateful symmetry seems completely lost on them.

Trump threatened to rule as a dictator on day one. But it speaks volumes that so many are already treating him as one. Never mind that they’re presenting rank cowardice as deference to the hand of God at work.