There may be a day to flambé Judge Cannon for how she handles the Espionage Act trial of Donald Trump (and Walt Nauta), but today is not that day.
1. In FPOTUS's Espionage Act prosecution, Judge Cannon today denied, without prejudice, the DOJ's bare bones motion seeking (1) to file their list of 84 potential witnesses under seal, and (2) an order preventing Trump and/or Nauta discussing the case with any of those 84 individuals.
2. I do not read any malign intent into Judge Cannon's order, although I view her with intense skepticism. In order to justify sealing the record, a district court judge has to make very particularized findings of fact and conclusions of law. Any such order can be immediately appealed to 11th Cir.
3. The DOJ's motion in support of sealing was bare-bones, spanning 1 page of text. It did not give the Court any of the particularized facts that it would need to enter a sealing order that would survive on appeal.
4. An appeal would be a virtual certainty from the many media outlets that moved to oppose the sealing motion would have taken such an appeal. As an analogy, the DOJ here asked Judge Cannon to make a sophisticated beef stew, but only gave her one ingredient -- water. Judge Cannon punted this back to the DOJ.
5. She told them that they need to submit evidence to support a sealing order, including why a sealing order is necessary, why a partial order would not be sufficient, and how long the material should remain under seal. Once the DOJ has submitted a motion that provides the necessary information,
Judge Cannon will be in a position to rule on 2 issues: (1) whether the witness list should be placed under seal and (2) whether the Court should order Trump/Nauta not to discuss the case with any/all/some of those witnesses.