Eye of the storm: The two judges at the center of the Trump Mar-a-Lago raid drama
by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter
September 01, 2022 07:00 AM
Two Florida judges are at the center of the storm surrounding the FBI's raid of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, with one having signed off on the search and the other handling the former president's demand for a special master.
One of the judges, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, was thrust into the spotlight after signing off on the Aug. 5 request by the FBI to search Trump’s Florida resort home. The other, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon, joined the fray after announcing she is leaning toward the appointment of an independent attorney to scrutinize the records the Department of Justice seized.
Both work in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and have overlapped in at least three criminal cases in the jurisdiction before.
One was a case related to a caretaker of two seniors charged in July 2021 with illegally accessing their bank accounts to steal nearly $300,000. Reinhart oversaw the defendant's initial appearance while Cannon handled the rest of the case. Another was a fraud scheme that bilked investors out of more than $900,000, with Reinhart taking the guilty plea in July 2021 while Cannon pronounced the sentence. And a third was a wire fraud case related to a Palm Beach County resident who pleaded guilty in August 2021, in which the plea was again taken by Reinhart while Cannon handed down the sentence.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/two-florida-judges-center-fbi-raid-controversy
