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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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A former Florida judge told CNN on Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Alieen Cannon, who is overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case, is "purposefully" delaying the trial.
This week, Cannon, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Trump, added two pretrial hearings, further delaying the start of a trial. The case has no trial date nearly a year after Trump was indicted on federal charges that he mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and obstructed the government's efforts to retrieve them. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and says the case is politically motivated.
Asked by Brianna Keilar on CNN News Central why Cannon has reshuffled the case's schedule, Jeff Swartz, a former Miami-Dade County Court judge, said: "I can come up with no other reason than she is purposefully avoiding ruling on certain matters and doing the best she can to delay the trial of this case as long as she possibly can."
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He added: "If she is that ignorant of how to handle these matters, then she doesn't belong on the bench. If she's doing it because she's lazy, then she doesn't belong on the bench. And if she's doing it just to delay, then she doesn't belong on the bench."
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida via email for comment from Cannon. It responded: "Our judges do not comment on pending cases."
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In late June, Cannon will hold a hearing on a gag order request from prosecutors that would limit what Trump can publicly say about law enforcement in connection with the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, in the summer of 2022 to obtain the classified documents.
Earlier this month, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that the DOJ "AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE," referring to the language in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant that is standard in all federal search warrants.
Cannon will also hear arguments on a request from Trump's legal team to declare that Jack Smith's appointment as the U.S. Department of Justice's special counsel for the case is invalid and that he therefore doesn't have the authority to continue prosecuting Trump in the matter.
Critics say Cannon has been too Trump-friendly in pretrial proceedings, with some claiming she showed bias when she postponed the former president's trial indefinitely in March. She has also been called incompetent and overwhelmed by the case.
Cannon has said she delayed the trial to give time to consider pending pretrial motions.
Update 6/5/24, 5:16 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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