NEW: Cannon to Hold Hearing on Special Counsel Validity

1:20 PM · June 05, 2024

Excerpt CNN cnn.com

Judge Aileen Cannon is planning on holding a sprawling hearing on Donald Trump’s request to declare Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel invalid, signaling the judge could be more willing than any other trial judge to veto the special prosecutor’s authority.

The planned hearing also adds a new, unusual twist in the federal criminal national security case against the former president: Cannon on Tuesday said that a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in the oral arguments later this month.

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Author Commentary

Ed Morrissey Jun 5, 2024 1:20 PM ET

Is there something to this argument? Maybe, but Cannon's decision to allow amici briefs and oral argument is unusual at the district court level, if not unprecedented. Generally speaking, district courts engage in fact-finding with the parties in the case at hand; amici briefs are more of a feature of appellate review, when the focus is on the law and procedure rather than fact-finding. CNN's legal expert Bradley Moss called it "absurd," and one has to wonder whether the 11th Circuit will intervene again in Cannon's handling of the case.