Ty Cobb, former White House attorney under Donald Trump, accused the judge overseeing the classified documents case of “bias and incompetence” and said she is trying everything she can to stop the trial from proceeding.
“The things that she has done here are inexplicable,” he said on CNN on Tuesday hours after Judge Aileen Cannon ― who was nominated to her position by Trump ― indefinitely postponed the criminal trial.
“All she’s really done today though is make official what everybody including Jack Smith already knew, which was she had no intention of getting this case to trial,” said Cobb, who led the White House response to the Russia investigation in 2017-2018. “And she wasn’t competent to get this case to trial.”
Cannon has slow-walked the case and made a number of baffling decisions, often to Trump’s advantage, leading to allegations of bias.
“I think I once said to be fair to her she may merely be incompetent,” Cobb said. “But no, this is a combination of bias and incompetence.”
He added: “She has not honored the public’s interest for one day in this case.”
Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett that special counsel Jack Smith doesn’t have any recourse to have Cannon removed from the case based on the decisions so far, especially given that judges have wide latitude on issues such as scheduling.
But he predicted eventually one of her decisions will lead to her removal.
“I do think she is not capable of ruling intelligently or fairly on most of the motions that will be pending and certainly the classified information issues, and I think at some point she will be removed in advance of trial,” he said.
Even that came with a pretty big caveat.
“Keep in mind this case now can’t go to trial until mid-to-late 2025,” he said. “And it won’t go to trial if Trump is elected.”
See his full conversation with Burnett below:
