Judge Aileen Cannon Accused Of Violating Judicial Rules By Not Disclosing Attendance Of Right-Wing Junket

Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon was found to have violated federal court rules when she failed to disclose her attendance at various right-wing judicial seminars.

One of these seminars took place after she had begun overseeing the former president’s classified documents case, which she later dismissed.

In July, Cannon controversially decided to dismiss the former president’s classified documents case on the grounds that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. Democrats have since called on her to recuse herself from the case, as her ruling suggests a deeply biased opinion of the defendant.

In May 2023, Cannon attended a lecture and banquet dinner hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, accompanied by prominent members of the Federalist Society, conservative judges and Scalia’s family members. Following the event, Cannon submitted multiple requests for reimbursement to the law school, as reported by ProPublica.

Cannon’s presence at the banquet was first reported on Tuesday, which clearly violates the 2006 rule requiring federal judges to file disclosure forms for their attendance at partisan events within 30 days. The law also dictates that the appearances must be made public on the court’s website, which Cannon failed to do.

A Cannon clerk gave a statement to ProPublica in which they claimed that Cannon had, in fact, submitted the necessary information but then accidentally deleted it from the website.

In May earlier this year, NPR reported that Cannon had broken the same rule by not disclosing her luxury weeklong trips to Montana on her website in 2021 and 2022. 

After NPR’s report, Clerk of Court Angela Noble spoke in defense of Cannon and declared that the failure to account for the trips was an oversight and technical issues were to blame for their absence from Cannon’s website.