Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon failed to disclose 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 threw out — in apparent violation of federal court rules. According to a Tuesday report from ProPublica , in May of 2023, Cannon attended a swanky banquet hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School — one of the leading conservative law schools in the nation. The school was renamed in honor of the late Supreme Court justice after a $20 million donation brokered by Supreme Court architect Leonard Leo, who controls a billion-dollar dark money fund and serves as co-chair chairman of of the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative lawyers network.
Cannon, a longtime member of the Federalist Society, attended a lecture and dinner alongside members of the society, Scalia’s family members, and prominent federal judges, according to materials obtained by ProPublica . Cannon submitted several reimbursement requests to the law school related to her travel expenses. Federal judiciary rules require judges to report travel reimbursements for such events within 30 days.
Cannon made no such disclosure within the designated time limit, and it’s not the first time. ProPublica’s report builds on two disclosure omissions identified in May by NPR . In 2021 and 2022, Cannon and her husband attended week-lon.