Aileen Cannon: The judge who dismissed Trump’s classified documents case was appointed by him

The Florida district judge who dismissed Donald Trump’s classified documents case has attracted no shortage of criticism given a series of controversial rulings — and the fact that it was Trump himself who elevated her to the bench.

Aileen Cannon is the federal judge with the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida who oversaw the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice case against Trump, who was charged with the illegal possession of classified documents at his Florida estate after leaving the White House in January 2021 and for impeding efforts by the US government to reclaim them.

The case was dismissed by Cannon in a court order on July 15 after she ruled that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution.

Cannon wrote in the order: “In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny.”

Prosecutors are expected to appeal the ruling.

According to the indictment, Trump attempted to hide boxes of classified documents following a grand jury subpoena that ordered their return. Trump’s aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira were also indicted and have also had their charges dismissed.

Trump previously insisted that he is “an innocent man” in angry statements and postings to Truth Social, alleging that he was the victim of “rabid wolves” and the “weaponization” of the justice system by the “corrupt” Biden administration, even as the indictment revealed photos of boxes of files stacked high in the glitzy ballrooms and bathrooms of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

Angela Noble, the court’s chief clerk, insisted that “normal