Former White House attorney Ty Cobb, who served in President-elect Trump’s first administration, sharply criticized U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for temporarily blocking the Justice Department from releasing special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s two prosecutions.
In an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” the anchor noted that Trump, in his press conference on Tuesday, praised Cannon as a “brilliant” judge five separate times.
Asked to weigh in on the press conference and Trump’s use of the term “brilliant” to describe Cannon, Cobb, using wordplay, said, “Well, to the extent that she’s brilliant, she’s shining. And the only reason she’s shining is she’s his tool, and he polishes her religiously.”
“He gets the results he needs from her,” he added.
The ruling from Cannon comes after Trump’s two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case asked her to bar the release of both sections of Smith’s report, including that dealing with Trump’s election interference case.
It’s not clear the extent of Cannon’s purview over the case, as a prior ruling from her tossing the case has been appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court has ordered a response by 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
Cobb said he thinks that timeline suggests the court “may be prepared to mitigate the stain that she is and the stain that she’s created again for the judiciary quickly on this.”
Cannon has repeatedly come under fire for her handling of Trump’s case, ruling in favor of the president on various motions legal observers described as long-shot bids.
The appeals court also has previously reversed Cannon’s rulings, including one appointing a special master to review the documents collected from Trump’s home for materials potentially protected by executive privilege, blocking their release to investigators.
Cobb said he expects the appeals court to reverse Cannon’s decision once again.
“The 11th Circuit has already, as we know, over two years ago, had to admonish her extensively for the rules and the remedies that she created out of whole cloth for him after the Mar-a-Lago search, and made it clear that, you know, she was way out of bounds, and overruled her,” Cobb said. “I suspect they will do so again quickly.”
