Aileen Cannon says Trump has sought ‘restitution of property’ in classified documents case

Donald Trump demanded the return of personal property seized during the Mar-a-Lago raid, the judge in his case has revealed with secret documents.

Trump was facing 40 federal charges at Judge Aileen Kanon‘s court over his alleged handling of sensitive materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House in January 2021. He was also accused of obstructing federal authorities’ efforts to retrieve them.

The former president had pleaded not guilty and said the case was part of a political witch hunt. Cannon, who has dismissed all charges against Trump, is also presiding over the case against Ryan Routh, who is accused of trying to kill the president. Republican presidential candidate at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach in September.

On Tuesday, the federal judge appointed by Trump denied Routh’s request to recuse himself from the case.

Routh, 58, is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 10 on charges of attempted murder of a presidential candidate; assault on a federal officer; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime; possession of a firearm while a former felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

He fired no shots on September 15, but Routh allegedly fled after a Secret Service agent noticed a gun sticking out of a fence a few holes away from where Trump was playing. Routh was arrested later that day and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Routh’s defense team alleged that Cannon had shown her bias against Trump in the classified documents case and would therefore be biased against the man accused of trying to kill the former president.

Newsweek I asked for comment by email on Wednesday from Trump’s presidential campaign and from Rout’s lawyer.

In her written response Tuesday, Cannon recalled that, after the FBI In a raid that seized thousands of pages of presidential records, Trump filed a request to get his personal belongings back.

Cannon approved his request to appoint a special captain to sort personal belongings from alleged presidential archives. However, prosecutors appealed Cannon’s decision to the Eleventh Circuit and blocked Cannon from appointing a special captain.

In her written ruling to Routh’s lawyers on Tuesday, Cannon rejected their claim that the special masters controversy proved her pro-Trump bias.

She said Routh’s attempt to tie his case to Trump’s classified documents case “was a strained premise to begin with” and that his motion “presents no facts or law that would justify a departure from the general rule of no denial , let alone the “pervasive bias.” and prejudice’ necessary to trigger the exception’ under federal rules.

On Trump’s property return request, she wrote that it was “a civil action in which former President Trump, as plaintiff, sought the return of property in a pre-indictment position and other related relief, including the appointment of a special captain to assess materials. seized by federal law enforcement.”

“That case was dismissed in December 2022 for lack of jurisdiction” following the Eleventh Circuit’s decision to vacate its special master ruling, she wrote.

“In contrast, the present case presents distinctly different allegations and allegations regarding the attempted assassination of former President Trump as a major presidential candidate, along with additional allegations related to firearms. , standing alone, warrants a ‘same or related’ case designation for purposes of recusal or any other analysis,” she wrote.

In her dismissal of Trump’s case over classified documents on July 15, Cannon noted that there is no constitutional support for the nomination Jac Smitha ‘private citizen’, such as a Ministry of Justice public prosecutor responsible for everything Donald Trump‘s federal charges.

Smith is now appealing that decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.