Trump's niece slams 'corrupt' Aileen Cannon as an enemy of democracy
Former President Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump laid into U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in her latest email blast, accusing her of corrupting the legal system and endangering democracy.
Cannon, a right-wing judge appointed by Trump, has slow-walked the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case for months, finally dismissing the case altogether this week based on a theory from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. Smith has already signaled he will appeal to the 11th Circuit, potentially setting up Cannon's removal from the case altogether, but further ensuring no chance the case can be heard before the election.
"Today, Aileen Cannon, Donald’s personal pocket judge, took the shocking (but not surprising) and illogical step of dismissing the charges against my uncle," wrote Ms. Trump. "Her behavior since acquiring this case has been abysmal and partisan; she has frequently skated across the line of malpractice. Her repeatedly putting her thumb on the scale in favor of the defense ... felt even worse, because we know Donald is guilty. We know he stole our national security documents; we know held them in non-secure locations; and we know he refused to return them. We know these things because we witnessed Donald commit the crimes—and he confessed to them over and over again."
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The only way to understand Cannon's ruling, she continued, is as "a political favor from a corrupt judge who, along with the illegitimate super-majority of the Supreme Court (especially Clarence Thomas) is determined to put Donald above the law."
Moreover, she warned, this is a stark reminder that even if Trump were to go away, many of his allies and enablers would still be scattered throughout positions of power around the country, and will continue chipping away at democracy even without him.
"Try to imagine an entire federal judiciary made up of Aileen Cannons," she wrote — since if the pro-Trump Project 2025 blueprint is made reality, that's what will happen. That plan, she wrote, "was specifically designed to shape a second Donald administration, is firing dedicated and non-partisan civil servants in order to replace them with people willing to take a loyalty oath not to the Constitution but to Donald. The corruption currently overtaking the federal judiciary will infiltrate absolutely every aspect of our government."