Legal analysts were not happy with a federal judge's ruling denying an FBI request to resume inspecting classified information.
The judge said she didn't agree with the Justice Department's claim that about 100 records it wants access to are highly classified.
Cannon was approved by the Senate in 2020. Her previous rulings have been accused of being pro- Trump.
Cannon had previously ruled that an independent official should review the documents to see if this is the case.
The ruling stunned some legal experts, who said that Trump had offered no evidence in court to dispute the classification of the records. He claimed in interviews that he broadly declassified the records, but his lawyers didn't repeat that in court.
—Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 15, 2022
There are ongoing factual and legal disputes over the status of the documents, according to a former Defense Department special counsel.
Which factual dispute? He wrote that Trump never said he declassified the documents.
The ruling was described as "bizarre" and "atrocious" by a former deputy assistant attorney general.
The Justice Department wanted to look at 100 classified documents. Immediately before her, that was what it was.
The only thing Trump said was 'Classified'. They say they're classified. The government isn't included. What happens when something becomes classified? The official authority is classified.
Cannon had been oddly dismissive of the FBI's security concerns, according to a national security lawyer.
He said that he had never seen a federal judge disregard Executive Branch classification concerns.
Andrew Weissman was one of the lead prosecutors on the investigation.
—Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) September 15, 2022
The only evidence before Cannon is that the documents are marked and that Trump didn't declassify them. He said she is in the tank.
The FBI's August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago yielded a lot of government records, which officials believe Trump took with him after he left office.
A picture of folders of records with clear "classified" markings that had been retrieved in Mar-a-Lago from a box that also contained old Time magazine covers was submitted by the DOJ.
Without access to the documents, the FBI can't properly establish the national risks that the documents created pose.
Trump's lawyers have argued that some of the documents are protected by executive privilege, meaning they can't be seen by Congress or courts.
Cannon appointed a special master, named Thursday as Judge Raymond Dearie, to screen the documents for information that is in this category.
Records from government agencies can't be protected under privilege rules. Analysts pointed out Thursday that Trump had denied the classified status of the documents.
In the wake of the raid, Trump has offered a number of other arguments, including that the FBI is perspiring against him, and that agents planted evidence.
Cannon's ruling is likely to be appealed by the Department of Justice.
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