A federal judge who was criticized by a higher court last year for her early handling of the case involving classified records found at Mar-a-Lago has been initially assigned to oversee the court hearings for his criminal indictment, according to multiple reports.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is scheduled to handle Trump’s hearing Tuesday in Miami, The New York Times, The Associated Press and The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified sources.
Cannon last year handled the president’s challenge of the search warrant executed at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Authorities said that during the search, they found more than 100 classified records, despite the fact that Trump had earlier told officials he had turned over all documents, as required by law.
Cannon, who was nominated in 2020 by Trump to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, granted a request from the former president seeking a special master to review the more than 13,000 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. She later dismissed Trump’s lawsuit after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the special master review, saying that the district court could not block the government from using records lawfully seized as part of a criminal investigation.
It was not immediately clear whether Cannon would oversee more than just Trump’s first appearance in court.
The former president said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social platform that he had been indicted, apparently in connection to classified records found last year at his Florida estate. Authorities have not commented on or confirmed the charges.
In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland named Jack Smith to act as special counsel overseeing the investigation into the records recovered from Mar-a-Lago and other incidents involving Trump.
The former president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, framing the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt.
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