Judge Aileen Cannon recently held a hearing in which she reprimanded a member of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team during an Espionage Act case involving former President Donald Trump. The judge, who was appointed by Trump, expressed skepticism about the gag order and even scolded prosecutor David Harbach at one point, suggesting that the case was not going well for Smith and his team.
Cannon questioned Mr. Harbach’s contention that the names of some agents had already been made public and that other agents had faced threats in Trump’s earlier remarks. When she seemed to have a hard time discerning a direct connection between Mr. Trump’s messages and any palpable threats to agents working on the documents case, Harbach lost his patience. Judge Cannon then scolded him from the bench, which was the second time in two months that she had done this.
Legal expert Elie Honig believes that Special Counsel Jack Smith should be “very worried” following a three-page order by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. Even as she ruled against Trump’s motion, Cannon’s ruling revealed her displeasure over Smith’s characterization of her order. Analyst Honig stated that the case was going to get tried before the election and now there are other pending issues.
Trump is currently facing 32 counts related to violating the Espionage Act, a law that several legal and constitutional experts have criticized as unconstitutional and unfair. Smith claims that these charges stem from Trump’s purported possession of government documents and his alleged efforts to impede their recovery. The FBI uncovered the materials during a search warrant executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
In his legal filing, Trump claimed that the Presidential Records Act supersedes the Espionage Act, under which Smith charged him. However, Cannon’s ruling left open the possibility that Trump’s legal team could still argue that claim during his trial, whenever that takes place.
