MMR April 11 2024 - Boogeyman (and Boogeywoman)

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case may have done just enough to avoid being removed from the case.



That’s the assessment of legal observers after U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, reversed herself Tuesday, agreeing that special counsel Jack Smith had been correct and that there is indeed no public right to know, at this stage, the identities of people who might testify against the former president.



“[T]he bottom line is this,” Cannon wrote in a 24-page order: the “most faithful” reading of the law and precedent suggests “this case is not subject to a public right of access” because it is still in the discovery phase. In other words, Trump won’t be armed with the names of potentially two dozen government witnesses, meaning he’ll have to find other grist for Truth Social.



That’s a stark reversal from two months ago.



Back in February, Cannon sided with Trump’s attorneys (and a group of media organizations) in ruling that a “strong presumption of in favor of public access” required unsealing documents that could out witnesses in the case. She explicitly rejected concerns about “witness safety and intimidation,” arguing that the special counsel had failed to substantiate fears that the former president and his allies would do what they have done in just about every legal proceeding.