Aileen Mercedes Cannon (born 1981) is a Colombian-born American lawyer who currently serves as a U.S. district judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Previously, Cannon worked for the corporate law firm Gibson Dunn from 2009 to 2012, and then as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020. She was nominated by then President Donald Trump to become a district judge and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in November 2020.
From August to December 2022, Cannon presided over the case of Donald J. Trump v. United States of America. Cannon ordered the U.S. government to pause using materials seized from Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club and residence, in its investigation and granted Trump's request for a special master to review the material. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed Cannon's order, finding that Cannon wrongly exercised jurisdiction over the case. Cannon then dismissed Trump's lawsuit per instructions from the Eleventh Circuit.
Following an indictment in June 2023, Cannon has been overseeing a resulting federal criminal case against Trump, while some legal experts called for her recusal, citing her handling of the civil case against Trump.
Early life and education
Aileen Mercedes Cannon was born in 1981 in Cali, Colombia. Her mother had fled Cuba as a girl, after the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. Her father is from Indiana. Cannon has an elder sister. Cannon grew up in Miami, Florida, where she attended Ransom Everglades School, a private school.
Cannon graduated from Duke University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts. In college, she studied for a semester in Spain and wrote for Miami's Spanish language newspaper El Nuevo Herald; her writings included topics such as flamenco dancing, festivals, and yoga. Cannon then attended the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an articles editor for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform and was a quarterfinalist in the school's moot court competition. She graduated in 2007 with a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, and Order of the Coif membership.
Cannon has been a member of the conservative and libertarian Federalist Society since 2005, when she was a law student. While being considered for the position of a district judge in 2020, Cannon explained that she joined the Federalist Society because of a "diversity of viewpoints" and also because she "found interesting the organization's discussions about the constitutional separation of powers, the rule of law, and the limited role of the judiciary to say what the law is—not to make the law".
Career
From 2008 to 2009, Cannon served as a law clerk for Steven Colloton, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Iowa. From 2009 to 2012, she was an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of the corporate law firm Gibson Dunn. In one case in 2011, Cannon defended the former leader of the fixed income desk of Thomas Weisel Partners, before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority; the former leader was cleared of fraud in the case.
From 2013 to 2020, Cannon was an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida. As a federal prosecutor, Cannon worked in the major crimes division, which included working on drug, firearm, and immigration cases, then moved to the appellate division, working on convictions and sentencings. In 2018, Cannon was part of the prosecution that won an appellate case involving Mutual Benefits Corporation's former lawyer Anthony Livoti Jr., reaffirming his 10-year sentence for fraud related to insurance investment. In 2019, Cannon was part of the prosecution that won an appellate case involving Scott W. Rothstein, which allowed prosecutors to withdraw support for reducing his 50-year sentence for a Ponzi scheme. As a prosecutor, Cannon helped secure convictions for forty-one defendants, of which four convictions were from jury trials.
Federal judicial service
In June 2019, the office of Senator Marco Rubio indicated to Cannon that he was considering her for a position of United States district judge. Cannon expressed interest that month, and subsequently was interviewed by representatives for Senator Rubio and Senator Rick Scott, as well as White House and Justice Department legal officials.