District Court of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon has concealed her attendance at several right-wing judicial seminars, including one that took place after she began overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, which she ultimately dismissed in apparent violation of federal court rules.

According to a Tuesday report from ProPublica, In May 2023, Cannon attended a fancy banquet hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School – one of the country’s leading conservative law schools. The school was renamed in honor of the late Supreme Court justice after brokering a $20 million donation from Supreme Court architect Leonard Leo. Leo controls a multibillion-dollar dark money fund and is co-chair of the Federalist Society, the powerful network of conservative lawyers.

Cannon, a longtime member of the Federalist Society, attended a lecture and dinner with members of the society, Scalia’s family members and prominent federal judges, according to documents released ProPublicaCannon submitted several requests to the law school for reimbursement related to her travel expenses.

Federal law requires judges to report travel expenses for such events within 30 days. Cannon has failed to make such a disclosure within the required time frame, and this is not the first time that he has done so.

ProPublica’s The report is based on two disclosure gaps uncovered by NPR in May. In 2021 and 2022, Cannon and her husband attended week-long colloquia hosted by George Mason at a luxury resort in Montana. Cannon did not release the required disclosures until NPR asked her about them. Court Clerk Angela Noble blamed technical issues for the omission, telling NPR, “Any omissions on the website are entirely unintentional.”

In a separate statement to ProPublica, A Cannon employee explained that although the judge had submitted the required information, it was not posted on the website. “Judges are often unaware that they have to enter the information twice,” they said.

Cannon’s failure to disclose invitations to expensive educational events hosted by prominent conservative groups is particularly troubling given her short tenure as a judge and her role in one of the country’s most significant criminal cases.

In July, Cannon dismissed the case against Trump over classified documents and ruled that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith – who is leading the Justice Department’s two cases against the former president – was unconstitutional. The decision, which the Justice Department appealed, shone a spotlight on previous rulings by Cannon – a Trump appointee – that were seen as overly favorable to the former president.

In 2022, Cannon was sharply rebuked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit after he granted the former president’s request for a “special counsel” to review reams of classified documents seized during the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid. The appeals court wrote that the unprecedented nature of Trump’s case “gives the judiciary no license to interfere in an ongoing investigation.”

In June The New York Times reported that senior judges in the Southern District of Florida had advised Cannon to refer the case to a more experienced judge – and one whose objectivity was less questionable.

But despite all the criticism that experienced lawyers have leveled against Cannon, the former president loves her. As previously reported by Rolling StoneTrump has privately suggested that Cannon could be a model for selecting judges in a possible second term – and that Republicans “need more like her.”

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