judge aileen cannon Archives - Home Safety Tech Pros

Cannon skeptical of delay in alleged Trump assassin case

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 06:21:40 +0000

Left: Aileen M. Cannon (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida). Right: Ryan Wesley Routh arrested by deputies in Florida on Sept. 15, 2024 (Martin County Sheriff’s Office).

A defense attorney for the man who allegedly attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at his Palm Beach, Florida, golf course asked the judge overseeing the case for a lengthy extension of the pretrial calendar to deal with mountains of discovery.

During the Wednesday hearing, however, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon expressed a decided measure of skepticism at the request — but said she would defer ruling until late this week or early next week.

Earlier this week, Ryan W. Routh, 58, filed a motion asking the court to reset the beginning of trial in the high-profile case from February 2025 to December 2025, citing the potential for a constitutionally-deficient defense should proceedings continue at the current pace.

At the hearing in the provincial Fort Pierce courtroom, Assistant Federal Public Defender Kristy Militello reiterated the case staked out in the 18-page motion to continue trial and revise scheduling.

“We’re still really in the dark,” Militello told the judge, according to a courtroom report by The Palm Beach Post.

Militello and Assistant Federal Public Defender Renee Sihvola said there was an “extraordinary volume” of material, including files sourced from 17 of Routh’s cellular phones, one other phone, and numerous other digital files. That discovery came from federal prosecutors and even more is believed to be on the way.

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Randomly assigned to me’ — ‘period’: Annoyed Mar-a-Lago judge defends herself, sees no reason to exit Trump assassination attempt suspect’s case

Then, after a basic review of those files, the documents and videos will be integrated into the defense’s case — which could take several months, according to Routh’s attorneys.

“I don’t have the resources of the FBI,” Militello said, making her case before the Trump-appointed judge, according to a courtroom report by Miami-based NBC affiliate WTVJ. “[It would] take a lawyer a year without sleep or vacation to review all the information in this case.”

Cannon, for her part, was reportedly not convinced.

“I’m not entirely sure the road blocks you’re describing exist to the extent you’re suggesting,” the judge told Routh’s lead attorney.

More Law&Crime coverage: Judge Aileen Cannon emerges as one of the 2024 election’s most influential players — and maybe one of the biggest winners as AG and SCOTUS rumors swirl

Still, the prospect of at least some delay could be in the offing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said the government did not generally object to pushing the trial back a bit but chided the defense’s nearly yearlong request for a December 2025 trial date as “wrong on many fronts,” according to the Palm Beach Post.

Shipley said such an extension is “just not feasible,” according to a courtroom report by West Palm Beach-based NBC affiliate WPTV.

In the end, Cannon said she would issue a ruling on the defense motion to continue trial “in the not-too-distant future.”

More Law&Crime coverage: Jack Smith asks 11th Circuit to keep Mar-a-Lago case alive even without Trump — in the name of ‘common sense’

“Discovery delays and the extraordinary volume of discovery have made the current trial schedule incompatible with Mr. Routh’s due process rights,” the motion reads. “The pace and quantity of discovery production, and the need to process disclosed materials into a usable form, prevent counsel at this time from providing a definitive estimate of the number of hours required for review. What is clear, however, is that the diligent efforts of counsel will be insufficient to prepare a case of this magnitude for trial on February 10, 2025. Proceeding with the scheduled trial or anytime soon thereafter — on charges punishable by life imprisonment — would result in a miscarriage of justice.”

In September 2024, Routh, who hails from Hawaii, was arrested in Florida after a Secret Service agent allegedly spotted him with a rifle “in the exterior brush along the fence line near the 6th hole putting green” at the Trump International Golf Club as the former president golfed one hole behind. Authorities have said that the agent opened fire, leading Routh to flee the scene in a Nissan Xterra.

After Routh was caught, federal agents said they found a letter addressed to the “world” stating that “[t]his was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.” Investigators also said that Routh had been camped out for some 12 hours, apparently waiting for Trump to begin playing golf.

Routh was indicted on charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Perhaps notably, Routh now literally and figuratively sat in the same defendant’s seat the president-elect once occupied when Cannon oversaw the since-dismissed Mar-a-Lago documents case.

Throughout the pendency of that beleaguered prosecution, Cannon was dogged by complaints that she allowed the codefendants and their allies wide latitude to delay, file frivolous legal documents that push untenable legal theories, push back deadlines, and otherwise engage in dilatory tactics — with an eye toward making sure no trial occurred before the 2024 presidential election.

Jerry Lambe and Matt Naham contributed to this report.

Source link

The post Cannon skeptical of delay in alleged Trump assassin case appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.

Jack Smith, Trump judge set for hearing at secure ‘facility’

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 23:42:46 +0000

Judge Aileen Cannon (left) during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight nomination hearing on July 29, 2020 (U.S. Senate via AP), Special counsel Jack Smith (right) speaks about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at a Department of Justice office in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Federal prosecutors are set for a sealed hearing on Wednesday in former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

Special counsel Jack Smith will appear before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday morning. Cannon said in a paperless order filed in federal court on Jan. 11 that the hearing will be held to evaluate classified filings by Smith being sought by Trump and his co-defendants.

“This hearing shall be conducted on a sealed, ex parte basis in a facility suitable for the discussion of classified information,” the docket reads. An ex-parte hearing means outside the presence of the other party, meaning Trump and his attorneys will not attend.

The case stems from Trump’s indictment in the Southern District of Florida accusing him of mishandling and illegally retaining classified and sensitive records after leaving office, including storing them in his bathroom and shower at Mar-a-Lago and allegedly showing them off at his golf club. Trump and two co-conspirators — Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira — have pleaded not guilty. The trial is currently slated for May 20.

As Law&Crime reported last week, Trump has doubled down on claims that his Florida-based prosecution is part of a conspiracy that encompasses the federal government and media organizations.

In a motion to compel filed on Jan. 16, Trump’s lawyers accused Smith of hiding evidence in the case.

Smith and his team of prosecutors, Trump attorney Christopher Kise wrote, are seeking to “avert its eyes from exculpatory evidence in the hands of the senior officials” not just at the Archives but at numerous agencies like, he claims, FBI, the Justice Department, the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Energy, the National Security Agency, the State Department and others.

Two days later, Smith filed an opposition to Trump’s motion, pushing back on the accusation of hiding evidence and taking a dig at the truthfulness of Trump’s motion.

“The Government supports full transparency of the record consistent with witness safety, national security, and the court’s protective order, in part because that transparency will expose the defendants’ distortions of the factual and legal landscape in their motions to compel,” Smith wrote in the Jan. 18 filing.

Trump’s lawyers fired back a few days later, accusing Smith of wrongfully contributing to public interest in the case.

“The Special Counsel’s Office chose to bring this case and has taken unprecedented steps to fuel biased press coverage and public interest in the proceedings in order to interfere with President Trump’s leading campaign for the presidency,” the motion says.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is also in on the conspiracy, according to Trump’s lawyers.

Among the “unprecedented steps” are what Trump’s attorneys describe as “conspicuously timed and tellingly defensive public statements by the Attorney General, released by CNN on January 19, 2024, in which he inappropriately sought to place DOJ’s imprimatur behind the Office’s untenable demand for a ‘speedy trial’ in this case and on the lawless charges filed in the District of Columbia.”

Trump is also facing indictment in the nation’s capital for allegedly trying to subvert President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election.

In his Jan. 18 filing, Smith urged Cannon, a Trump appointee, to keep sensitive information out of the public eye.

“[O]ut of concern for witness safety and the reasons explained below, the Government opposes the Motion for Temporary Leave to File Redacted Brief — in effect a motion to disclose Discovery Material subject to the Court’s protective order — to the limited extent that the motions to compel or their exhibits identify any prospective Government witness, constitute Jencks Act material for the same, or contain certain additional discrete sensitive information specified below,” Smith’s opposition says.

Trump’s attorneys, in their response, accused the special prosecutor of failing to show why such information needed to be sealed.

“[T]he Office made no effort to substantiate its vague claims concerning ‘witness safety’ and ‘national security’ as they relate to the requested redactions,” the motion says. “Many of the ‘potential witnesses’ referenced in President Trump’s motions to compel have been disclosed in public reports relating to the case, in some instances based on apparent leaks by prosecutors, and in the FOIA releases discussed in President Trump’s motions, which reveal some of the witnesses’ government email addresses.”

Read Trump’s reply to Smith’s opposition here.

Law&Crime’s Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

Source link

The post Jack Smith, Trump judge set for hearing at secure ‘facility’ appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.