A popular lawyer and podcaster who is critical of Donald Trump appears to have led more than 1,000 of his followers to file complaints against the federal judge overseeing the former president’s classified documents case in Florida.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner offered a “step-by-step” guide to followers of his Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner show on how to file a complaint against U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon to force her recusal from Trump’s classified documents case.
“For a step-by-step guide to how every American citizen can file a judicious complaint form demanding a fair, impartial, and independent jurist be appointed to preside over the Trump Florida case, please click on the following link,” Kirschner wrote in a May 27 episode of his show, which linked to a video of the guide he had uploaded on May 11.
But on May 22, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which handles responses to complaints against Cannon, said the flurry of letters he received appeared to be part of an “orchestrated campaign.”
“Many of the complaints” against Cannon were filed with the “request that the Chief Circuit Judge remove her from the classified-documents case and reassign the case to a different judge,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in a May 22 order posted on the appeals court’s web page. Pryor ultimately denied the effort to force Cannon off the case through his order last week.
Kirschner’s call to action to his followers underscores the public criticism of Cannon in recent months, mostly from left-wing and Democratic voices, who have raised scrutiny about her delays in ruling on multiple pending motions and giving critical responses to special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors.
An episode of Kirschner’s podcast Justice Matters included a description that claimed Cannon “has brought the case to a screeching halt by declining to resolve motions in a timely manner and by refusing to set a trial date.”
“A lot of people took advantage of that step-by-step video, and they submitted those judicial complaint forms,” Kirschner said on his podcast.
But Pryor wrote on May 22 that the “judicial-complaint process” Kirschner urged his followers to engage in wasn’t even “the appropriate way to seek review of Judge Cannon’s orders.” Pryor did note that her “orders are nevertheless subject to appellate review in the normal course,” such as if Smith decides to appeal one of her decisions to the 11th Circuit.
Last month, Cannon indefinitely delayed Trump’s trial on 40 criminal counts for allegedly mishandling classified records and obstructing the federal government’s efforts to retrieve them. Smith is prosecuting the Florida-based documents case and a separate Washington, D.C.-based case involving Trump’s alleged role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to subvert the 2020 election.
Smith is currently seeking to bar Trump from making statements about the law enforcement officers who searched his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022 after Trump recently said FBI agents were “locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.” Cannon denied Smith’s initial request on May 28, arguing he did not allow “sufficient time” for Trump’s attorneys to respond.
During the Mar-a-Lago search, FBI agents used their standard use-of-force policy, which prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject being searched has an intent to harm the officer or another person.
Smith asked Cannon again for a gag order on May 31, saying Trump’s “deceptive and inflammatory claims” put law enforcement at risk.
Proceedings in the Jan. 6 case are also on hold for now as the Supreme Court weighs whether Trump enjoys any immunity as it pertains to the overt acts he is accused of committing in that indictment. Smith is seeking to get at least one of Trump’s two federal cases to trial ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Last week, Trump became the first former president to become a felon after a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 counts for falsifying business records of reimbursements he paid to his former attorney Michael Cohen for paying porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her affair allegations in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
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Trump is also facing a case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia over his alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election results there. He has pleaded not guilty in each case he faces and has vowed to appeal his recent conviction in New York.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Kirschner for comment.