Judge Cannon Correct
Cannon Correct - a perspective from @shipwreckedcrew -William Shipley, 22 years as federal prosecutor and defense attorney)
Just to summarize briefly what has happened in the last few hours re SCO Smith's effort to get a change in FPOTUS Trump's release conditions and impede his ability to criticize the investigation by the FBI and SCO in Florida -- that motion was filed late in the evening on Friday -- yesterday the defense attorneys objected to the motion on the basis that the SCO did not comply with the "Meet and Confer" requirements under the Local Rules in SDFL before filing their motion.
The defense objection laid out the timeline of events late in the day on Friday -- just prior to a 3 day weekend -- including that the only telephone call between the two sides took place approximately 15 minutes before the SCO filed. The Trump defense asked for 2 things -- a list of comments that the Govt was agitated over so the defense could be certain what it was being asked to confer about specifically, and that they have a more in-depth "Meet and Confer" on Monday -- Memorial Day -- which would give them a chance to confer in more detail with Trump and other attorneys.
Trump's main attorney is the FL case is also the attorney leading his defense in New York -- Todd Blanche. Blanche was set to give the closing argument in NY today -- already done. He was willing to have the "Meet and Confer" yesterday even though his attention was on NY. But the SCO refused even that - they claimed that further "Meet and Confer" would be fruitless, that the defense should be able to discern without being told what statements were problematic, and in general just dismissive of their obligation to "Meet and Confer" under the local rules. As noted, the SCO filed their motion only about 15 minutes after hanging up the phone -- and did not include a statement by the defense with regard to their position on the motion as was requested by Trump's attorneys in an email after their final phone call. Basically, the motion was done and ready to be filed before the "Meet and Conferral" -- including the specific statements that they were the basis for their motion, exactly what they refused to give to Trump's attorneys during the phone call.
So late yesterday the defense filed and objection to the motion -- not on the merits, but just on the basis that the SCO did not comply with the local rules -- and they have had a long series of episodes of similar conduct where they either did not comply or took short-cuts around the rules to make compliance meaningless.
This morning the Florida Judge denied the SCO motion without prejudice and did so based on the objection raised by the Defense -- that the SCO had not complied with the Local Rule despite the Defense willingness to do so after only a delay from Friday to Monday.
But in addition to admonishing Smith -- once again -- for failing to engage in a meaningful "Meet and Confer" as required by Local Rule, she added the following that will apply to all contested motions filed going forward:
"Because the filing of the Special Counsel's Motion did not adhere to these basic requirements, it is due to be denied without prejudice. Any future, non-emergency motion brought in this case -- whether on the topic of release conditions or anything else -- shall not be filed absent meaningful, timely, and professional conferral. Moreover, all certificates of conference going forward shall (1) appear in a separate section at the end of the motion, not embedded in editorialized footnotes; (2) specify, in objective terms, the exact timing, method, and substance of the conferral conducted; and (3) include, if requested by opposing counsel, no more than 200 words verbatim from the opposing side on the subject of conferral, again in objective terms. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in sanctions."
These conditions are expressly directed at the conduct of the Smith SCO on this motion.
I think it is fair to say -- based on this ruling and the chronicling of past failures by the SCO Smith to comply with local rules as set forth in the defense Objection -- that the Florida Judge has lost patience with the SCO and the repeated flagrant violations of what she and other Judges in Florida have set down as the baseline standard for professional and ethical conduct.
Given the contentious matters that remain to be decided before her, the SCO has gone beyond just "playing with fire."
https://x.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1795506195840799204?s=46