Trump-appointed judge assigned to oversee criminal case

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The federal criminal case against Donald Trump has been initially assigned to a judge he appointed who was criticised over her decision to grant the former president’s request for an independent arbiter to review documents obtained during an FBI search of his Florida estate.

A source said the case has been assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Mr Trump in 2020.

The move seems a rare bit of good news for Mr Trump given rulings last year she issued in his favour and in opposition to the Justice Department.

Judge Cannon was thrust into the spotlight when she issued what many legal experts saw as an extraordinary decision to approve a so-called special master to review the documents seized by the FBI.

Some experts said the judge gave undue deference to the former president and unnecessarily put on hold certain investigative work by the Justice Department.

As part of that case, Judge Cannon temporarily barred federal agents and prosecutors from reviewing a batch of classified documents seized during the search.

Her order was ultimately thrown out by a federal appeals court, which found she had overstepped.

The federal appeals court ended the independent review of documents.