'One intelligent thing she's doing': Ex-judge says Cannon is using delays to save her job

The federal appeals court overseeing U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would have "no choice" but to remove her from the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case if she ruled with Donald Trump's assertion that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed, said former Miami-Dade County court judge Jeff Swartz on CNN.

Swartz in particular slammed Cannon's decision Wednesday to hold a multi-day hearing on Trump's motion to throw out the case — and allow testimony from unrelated third-party right-wing lawyers at that hearing — as well as drag out motions from Smith to impose a gag order on Trump.

So far, the 11th Circuit has not found cause to remove her. However, Swartz told CNN anchor Brianna Keilar if the judge was to grant Trump's request here, it would be the last straw.

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"She [appears to be] purposely avoiding ruling on certain matters and doing the best she can to delay the trial of this case as long as she possibly can," said Swartz.

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"I just can't come up with a reason. If she is that ignorant of how to handle these matters, then she doesn't belong on the bench. If she's doing it because she's lazy, then she doesn't belong on the bench. And if she's doing it just to delay, then she doesn't belong on the bench ... I can come up with no other reason for this, then she is doing this to purposely delay Mr. Trump's litigation."

"Where she thinks that she is better than everybody else, and knows this better than anybody else, that she needs the help of Ed Meese, of all people, to tell her what to do, and allow someone who is not even involved in the litigation, has no dog in the fight whatsoever, to be involved in the litigation itself, is completely unheard of," Swartz added.

"She is doing things just to do them, and she won't rule because she knows if there's an appeal on anything she rules on, the 11th Circuit would now have the ability on their own to remove her from this litigation."

"If Cannon rules for Trump, when it comes to the authority of the special counsel — I mean, is the case just done?" asked Keilar.

"The case actually will require that the special prosecutor take an appeal, which will take things up to the 11th Circuit, and they will rule as every other court has ruled, and they will chastise her," said Swartz.

"And I believe that they would have no choice, after the three rulings they've had to rule on, that the chief judge of that circuit would have no choice but to sua sponte remove her from this litigation. This is one of the reasons why she will not rule on anything: because she knows this could happen. That's the one intelligent thing that she's doing right now."

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