Monica Lewinsky has joined many liberals in calling for Judge Aileen Cannon to be removed for her handling of the case involving classified documents taken from Donald Trump’s home.
Cannon has been a source of fury and bewilderment among Trump’s critics after he issued rulings in the case that was overturned and failed to get it forward for trial before the November election.
The former White House intern and activist, 50, joined those critics in demanding that Trump appointee Cannon be impeached in a social media rant.
“I woke up angry about the Florida documents case,” she wrote. “It’s INSANE that it hasn’t moved forward to trial, and I hope Judge Cannon is indicted,” she wrote.
More recently, Cannon appeared to side with prosecutors when Trump’s lawyers raised issues with the warrant justifying the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.
Monica Lewinsky has joined many liberals in calling for Judge Aileen Cannon to be removed for her handling of the case involving classified documents taken from Donald Trump’s home.
“IF the documents had been declassified (which they were not), then all Trump had to do was photocopy them and return the originals they had requested and explain that they had been declassified (again, for those in the back, which It wasn’t like that,” Lewinsky continued.
Cannon recently postponed his May trial date and has not scheduled a new one, increasing the likelihood that Trump will not face a trial in his classified documents case before the November election.
The long tirade continued, with Lewinsky furious at Cannon’s actions, which she believes favor Trump.
‘IF it would have been an honest (ahem) mistake to take them… just return them, LIKE ANY OTHER PRESIDENT WHO HAD CLASSIFIED MATERIALS IN HIS PRIVATE POSSESSION. (which would still have warranted an investigation but perhaps would not have resulted in a trial. The danger and damage caused by this judge is overwhelming).
Lewinsky famously had an affair with President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1997, and their relationship began when she was a 22-year-old unpaid intern at the White House. It ultimately led to her impeachment.
On August 17, 1998, after multiple denials, the former President appeared on television and finally confessed, insisting that he was “solely and completely responsible” for the relationship.
The affair and its consequences became known as the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
She has since returned to public life in the last decade, with a television show produced about the romance involving her.
Cannon has been a source of fury and bewilderment among Trump’s critics after he issued rulings in the case that was overturned and failed to get it forward for trial before the November election.
Cannon recently postponed his May trial date and has not scheduled a new one, increasing the likelihood that Trump will not face a trial in his classified documents case before the November election.
Lewinsky has largely been an activist on behalf of liberal and feminist causes.
Trump was indicted in June 2023 and accused of illegally retaining national security documents at his Florida club.
Not long after the fact, two high-ranking federal judges asked Cannon, who had been assigned the case, to step back, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing his limited trial experience and rulings that helped the defense.
Judge Cannon was confirmed by the Senate in November 2020, weeks before Trump left office, and had limited experience in the complex area of national security law and classified documents. His Fort Pierce courtroom, unlike the federal courthouse south of Miami, was not equipped with a secure document-handling facility.
Among those urging her to step back in the case was Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, chief judge of the Southern District of Florida, appointed by George W. Bush and who is the First Cuban-American federal judge.
Prosecutors, led by special prosecutor Jack Smith, got a Court of Appeals panel to overturn their order preventing the government from using classified documents seized from the former president during its investigation. He agreed with the Justice Department’s assertion that “the district court probably erred in exercising its jurisdiction.”
Federal judges like Cannon make their own decisions about whether to recuse or drop a case.
The confrontations and court filings have become increasingly heated, with Smith’s team calling a Trump legal theory “pure fiction” and Cannon criticizing Smith’s prosecutors for demanding an “unprecedented and unfair” quick decision.
Trump sharply criticized the case, federal prosecutors and the FBI agents who raided Mar-a-Lago. If he were elected president, he could use his authority to try to close the case.
A year ago, experts identified the Florida case as the biggest threat to Trump. It is now highly unlikely that there will be a trial before the November election.
Information about peer pressure, which Cannon resisted, comes to light after the classified documents case, once called the most serious legal threat facing Trump, has little chance of being tried before Trump face a jury.
In May, Cannon accused Smith of making a “bad faith” request to impose a gag order on Trump following his claim that the FBI was authorized to shoot him during a search at Mar-a-Lago. He ruled against Smith, saying federal prosecutors failed to show “professional courtesy” when they consulted with defense attorneys just before the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
Also in May he postponed the trial indefinitely. It was scheduled to begin on May 20.