If former President Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, he may appoint as attorney general a federal judge who has helped him stave off dozens of charges relating to his improper removal of classified White House documents.
According to a report from ABC News, which cited several sources with knowledge of the situation, Trump’s transition team is considering federal Judge Aileen Cannon — who oversaw the classified documents case involving Trump for over a year until she dismissed it this past summer — to become his attorney general if he wins the presidential election. ABC News was able to view the list of potential candidates, which placed Cannon’s name as second out of a dozen choices.
It’s not uncommon for presidents to select former or even current federal judges to take on that role — current Attorney General Merrick Garland, for example, was still serving as a federal judge before he was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve in his cabinet. But selecting a judge who has had a direct hand in a case involving a president would be rare, if not unprecedented, and an extreme conflict of interest for both, especially considering that the judge rendered rulings in the former president’s favor.
Many legal experts expressed confusion over Cannon’s decision to toss out Trump’s classified documents case, in which she agreed with the former president’s lawyers over their novel arguments that the Department of Justice (DOJ) improperly appointed Jack Smith to be special counsel in the case. Smith’s office is currently in the process of appealing that decision.
Even before that decision, Cannon entertained a number of the Trump legal team’s requests for delays in the case, some of which were appealed and overturned by higher courts.
Cannon has also engaged in ethically questionable behavior, including attending a conservative legal junket in May, just two months before she ordered the classified documents case to be dropped. She did not disclose her attendance at the event publicly, in violation of a judiciary rule that was established nearly two decades ago.
Several commentators lashed out at the idea of Cannon being considered for a role in the Trump administration after rendering several rulings and actions in his favor.
“Judge Aileen Cannon delayed Trump’s trial past the election and ran out the clock for him. She protected Trump every step of the way. She attacked Jack Smith and smeared his role as unconstitutional. Now Trump is considering making her Attorney General. Can you say QUID PRO QUO?!” said political strategist Lindy Li on the social media site X.
Trump’s consideration of Cannon “should be grounds for IMMEDIATE investigation,” legal commentator Tristan Snell said.
The X account for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) also suggested that the classified documents case against Trump should now resume without Cannon.
“Now that Judge Aileen Cannon is reportedly being considered as a potential attorney general in a second Trump administration, it’s even clearer that she can never be impartial in the classified documents case,” CREW said. “She must be removed.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 182 new monthly donors in the next 24 hours.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy