Judge Aileen Cannon will not be at the Tuesday hearing of former President Donald Trump in federal court in Miami, but will be the person who will oversee the rest of the judicial process in the classified documents case.
The judge has several ties to the Hispanic community: she was born in Cali, Colombia, her mother is of Cuban origin, and she grew up in Miami.
Although Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman will preside over the former president’s arraignment on Tuesday, Cannon will have the authority to review the judge’s decision at the request of either party.
having graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, Cannon began his career as a clerk for the federal appeals judge in Iowa, and later at the offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an elite law firm based in Washington DC
In 2013, Cannon returned to Florida, where he began his work as a United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in the felony and appellate divisions.
In 2020, Trump nominated her as a federal judge with the endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio, where she pledged to uphold the rule of law during her confirmation hearing. She was confirmed by the Senate after the November elections.
When FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022 looking for classified documents, Cannon was also randomly assigned to oversee the case.
It all would have started the day the former president left the White House. To see more from Telemundo, visit
Cannon made some controversial rulings in that first case, ruling in favor of Trump’s request to appoint a “special prosecutor” to review whether documents seized by the FBI and Justice Department were protected by executive privilege. He also temporarily blocked parts of the DOJ’s investigation into the documents.
Later, it was reprimanded by an Appeals Court and those favorable decisions were annulled.
Cannon was randomly selected for this case from among four federal judges in South Florida.
“This will be the largest and most closely watched prosecution in American history,” Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University School of Law, told NBC News. “Will enough of the public accept the verdict whatever it is? Or will they see any results as political? The answers to those questions are just as important as the verdict.”
A constitutional lawyer explains what is the possibility that the former president’s mugshot will be taken during his hearing in Miami.
This is what we know about the 42-year-old judge:
- He was born in Cali, Colombia, to a Cuban mother, who fled the island during the 1959 communist revolution, and an Indiana father.
- He grew up in Miami and attended Ransom Everglades, a private school in Coconut Grove, where he participated in extracurricular sports such as swimming and water polo.
- After high school, he studied at Duke University in North Carolina, spent a semester in Spain, and began working as an intern at El Nuevo Herald during the summer of 2002.
- Later, he would get his law degree. magna cum saude from the University of Michigan.
- He joined the Federalist Society as a law student in 2005 and has maintained ties to the group throughout his career.
- He has practiced law for 15 years and, although most of his career has been spent as a federal prosecutor, he has limited trial experience due to his focus on appellate work.
