I know you’re a real cuckoo

This is a good summary of the ways in which Aileen Cannon could tank the prosecution of Trump if she chooses too, and her past conduct suggests that she might choose to:

Imagine, though, that Cannon does preside over this case. She has infinite tools at her disposal to thwart the prosecution at nearly every turn. Big swings, like tossing out the whole case—a very real possibility in her courtroom of chaos—can be appealed and overturned. But at every step, there are opportunities for sabotage. Cannon can try to rig voir dire to help the defense stack the jury with Trump supporters. She can exclude evidence and testimony that’s especially damning to Trump. She can disqualify witnesses who are favorable to the prosecution. She can sustain the defense’s frivolous objections and overrule the prosecution’s meritorious ones. She can direct a verdict of acquittal to render the jury superfluous. She can declare a mistrial prematurely for any number of reasons, including lengthy juror deliberations, and stretch out various deadlines to run out the clock. Many of these procedural moves could not be appealed until the proceedings have drawn to a close; appeals courts do not referee every little dispute in a jury trial as they happen. Cannon will be in control.

That should be a frightening prospect for Smith. Cannon has already revealed her profound bias in favor of the president who appointed her, breaking a series of bedrock rules to help him escape the classified documents probe. Now she seems to have gotten a second bite at the apple, a chance to manipulate court procedures to assist Trump and subvert Smith at every turn. Let’s not pretend as if it’s a mystery whether she will; her name is already synonymous with MAGA-style judicial corruption. The simplest way to put it is that if Cannon remains assigned to this case, Trump will not be convicted, no matter how damning the evidence. That conclusion is not defeatist or cynical; it is a mere acknowledgment of the reality that Republicans have created by stacking the bench with venal mediocrities like Aileen Cannon.

I would estimate the chances of this happening as somewhat less than the odds of the Oakland A’s winning the World Series this year, but in an alternate universe in which Aileen Cannon had any integrity she would recuse himself from the Trump case. The twisted irony of our system is that the judges who most need to recuse are least likely to.