Hi Reader,

In recent years, ProPublica has kept a penetrating eye on the American judicial system, consistently digging up details about judges’ behavior off the bench and exposing the web of money, influence and power reshaping America’s courts. 

Just last week, ProPublica reported that federal Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the controversial jurist who tossed out the classified documents criminal case against former President Donald Trump in July, failed to disclose her attendance at a May 2023 banquet funded by conservative law school George Mason University. Cannon has repeatedly violated a rule requiring that federal judges disclose their attendance at private seminars. In 2021 and 2022, Cannon took weeklong trips to the luxurious Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, for legal colloquiums sponsored by George Mason, which named its law school for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia thanks to $30 million in gifts that conservative judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo helped organize. (Cannon did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In response to questions from ProPublica, the clerk in the Southern District of Florida wrote in an email that Cannon had filed the Sage Lodge trips with the federal judiciary’s administrative office but had “inadvertently” not taken the second step of posting them on the court’s website. She explained that “Judges often do not realize they must input the information twice.” The clerk said she had no information about the May 2023 banquet.)

Cannon’s performance during almost four years of a lifetime appointment has drawn criticism from lawyers, former federal judges and courtroom observers who told ProPublica that she doesn’t render timely decisions and has made unpredictable rulings in both civil and criminal matters. By contrast, Trump, who appointed Cannon in 2020 to the Fort Pierce courthouse, has praised her brilliance, and Federalist Society founder Steven Calabresi called her a heroine for throwing out the criminal case against Trump.

Democracy depends on a judiciary branch that can consistently and ethically carry out its job. And if money, influence and power are remaking the American judicial system, the public should know. Our reporters have the freedom and resources to pursue investigations into people at the highest levels of power in our government because we’re a nonprofit, independent newsroom.

Our fall member drive is over Friday. Help us continue this urgent work investigating our country’s most powerful people. Join ProPublica today with your donation of any amount and help ensure that we can continue to produce the kind of well-researched journalism that spurs impact just like this.

Thanks so much, 

Jill Shepherd

Proud ProPublican