Judge Dismisses Ethics Complaints Accusing Aileen Cannon of Bias in Trump Special Master Order

Source: National Law Journal

A federal judge dismissed a handful of ethics complaints that were filed against U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon over her handling of former President Donald Trump’s challenge to the seizure of documents from his Mar-a-Lago home.

The complaints filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit accuse Cannon of political bias in her decision to appoint a special master to review the seized documents, and claim she failed to base her order on sound legal reasoning.

In dismissing the complaints, Chief Judge William Pryor said the allegations lacked sufficient evidence showing that Cannon was out to favor Trump or had a conflict of interest. He also wrote that allegations concerning the merits of a judge’s decision can’t go forward under judicial misconduct rules.

“To the extent complainant’s allegations concern the substance of the subject judge’s official actions, rulings, findings, and orders in the above-described case, the allegations are directly related to the merits of the subject judge’s decisions or procedural rulings,” he wrote in one of the decisions.

Read more: https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2022/12/06/judge-dismisses-ethics-complaints-accusing-aileen-cannon-of-bias-in-trump-special-master-order/?slreturn=20221106155444