Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Jack Smith Sees NEW OPENING to OUST Judge Cannon

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

Special Counsel Jack Smith is ready to pounce as early as this weekend in seeking the removal of federal Judge Aileen Cannon and have her replaced in order to try the Mar-a-Lago obstruction case against Trump by May. Michael Popok of LegalAF explains how two separate rulings —one about witness protection where the judge committed Clear Error, and one about Classified Information Procedures which gives Smith an automatic expedited appeal, will come together to allow him to ask for the judge’s reassignment because of her illogical and inconsistent rulings that create and appearance of impropriety. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://RocketMoney.com/legalaf Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So Michael Popak, Legal AF, we are rapidly approaching the moment of truth for Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago case against Donald Trump for espionage and obstruction, and whether Jack Smith and the Department of Justice is going to move for the reassignment of the case away from Judge Aileen Cannon. We've got not one, but two possible appellate issues that are coming together, coalescing at the same time. We'll know more about it on Friday when Donald Trump files his final brief on one of the issues. I'm going to tell you in this hot take what those two issues are. I'm going to tell you what the grounds would be for Jack Smith, the likelihood of success,

and what the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Atlanta, who already, most of the judges there, have a jaundiced view of what Aileen Cannon has done already since she was first assigned to the case before the indictment even came out, having reversed her twice related to Donald Trump. I'll tell you what I think will happen and the standard that needs to be applied by the 11th Circuit if they're going to apply what I refer to as the Lemon Law and remove a judge and assign a new one, especially this late. The two issues that I'm going to break down right here on this hot take, one is related to witness protection and the other related to the Classified Information Procedures Act,

or what we like to refer to here in the shop as CIPA, C-I-P-A, and the CIPA issues. One of them gives an immediate right to an appeal, but the way that Jack Smith has set this up, he has Aileen Cannon's leg hovering over a bear trap related to witness protection. Those two things could come together, the witness protection issue and the SEPA issue, and give a fast track appeal directly to the 11th Circuit for Jack Smith to then seek the removal of Aileen Cannon. Waiting patiently. It's no secret the Department of Justice and Jack Smith have been frustrated, frustrated and buffeted by Aileen Cannon and how she's handling or mishandling this SIPA-based case. There's no two ways about it. I get she's in a sleepy backwater division of the Southern District of Florida. I practiced there. I know all about Fort Pierce. I know all about how Alien Cannon got this position. Really, nobody else wanted it. It is not the shining star or the crown jewel of

the Southern District of Florida. West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, certainly Miami, maybe even Key West. But on nobody's list is Fort Pierce, a very small cow town off of Lake Okeechobee, is that where you want sophisticated federal criminal cases to be tried? You just don't. And Aileen Cannon, who's only been a judge for a very short amount of time, most of it through COVID, but she didn't handle many cases at all, never seen a SEPA case before, and you can tell by the way she's making rulings. First issue, first issue that we're going to know more about is whether she is going to reverse herself, always a difficult thing for a judge to do, off of the final briefing this Friday.

She made an improvident ruling, a wrongheaded ruling recently that would have disclosed over a dozen witnesses and their identity to the public who are cooperating with the government against Donald Trump in this classified Information Procedures Act-based case. That is a no-no. That is a cardinal sin in the world of criminal courts and criminal judges. As part of their impartial administration of justice, they're supposed to protect witnesses, especially grand jury witnesses, who in all their testimony, it's secret until the day that they testify.

Enlisting these people, and we're not talking about not turning over evidence to the defense to let them put on a defense. We're talking about not producing information on the public docket that would put these witnesses in harm's way based on a track record and a body of work by Donald Trump that the prosecutor reminded Aileen Cannon, the judge, happens all the time. A fact that the magistrate judge that

reports to the judge told us all. Donald Trump has a habit of attacking witnesses, prosecutors, their families, jurors, grand juries, jurors, judges, and the like. Even Aileen Cannon herself has been attacked by a person who's now been prosecuted who sits in Texas, who made death threats against alien cannons. So she knows well of what I'm talking about. So she made an initial ruling that they had to not redact, not keep confidential, but put on the public docket witness names. She applied the wrong standard in order to do that. She told the prosecutors that they had to meet a heightened burden to prove that they needed to keep this secret from the public, but that is not the standard in the 11th Circuit,

or really anywhere else, when it relates to witness protection. It is a much lower good faith standard. In fact, the cases that Aileen Cannon relied on, Judge Cannon relied on in her own order, said that she was applying the wrong standard. You can blame her law clerk, but you have to ultimately, the buck stops with the judge. rarely invoked, rarely mentioned by a prosecutor unless he really has to. And that is manifest injustice and clear error. When you tell a judge that you're about to commit clear error, reversible error, and what you're about to do creates manifest injustice, you better back those words up because that is signaling to the judge that she has touched the third rail and is about to electrocute herself and the case and set herself up for reversible error. A judge who's already been chastised by two separate 11th Circuit appellate panels before the case even led to an indictment by the way she interfered with the search warrant

process and almost tried to dismiss an indictment that didn way she interfered with the search warrant process and almost tried to dismiss an indictment that didn't even exist yet at the beginning of the case. She had to be reprimanded, including by the chief judge of the 11th Circuit before this case even became a case, and be told, you're a trial judge, back the F, my words, back the F up and stay out of it. the F, my words, back the F up and stay out of it, the prosecutor, the executive branch have a role. You don't have a role on this side of the aisle, in the judiciary branch. Do you ever feel like money is just flying out of your account? You have no idea where it's going? I know that feeling. It's all the subscriptions. Think about it. Between streaming services, fitness apps, delivery services, parenting apps, it's endless.

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