Facebook posts
Facebook posts
stated on October 1, 2022 in a post:

Aileen Cannon has been arrested.

Pants on Fire!

No, Aileen Cannon, the judge in Trump documents case, wasn’t arrested

If your time is short

  • Aileen Cannon wasn’t arrested. 
 
See the sources for this fact-check

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s legal challenge to the FBI’s recent seizure of documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate, has drawn scrutiny for rulings siding with Trump. 

But a recent Facebook post implies that whatever allegiance Cannon might have for the former president, who nominated her for her judicial post in southern Florida, was misguided. 

“Trump betrays Judge Cannon and police have just taken her away, she was being used by Trump,” the Oct. 1 post says. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.)

We contacted the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida about the post but didn’t immediately hear back. However, we found no evidence to support the claim that Cannon was arrested. We didn’t find news articles or other reports corroborating the post in online searches or in the Nexis news archive. 

The high-profile case Cannon is presiding over has drawn widespread media coverage. On Sept. 9, The Washington Post reported that “her profile soared” as she intervened in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified information.

Her arrest would be closely watched and covered. 

But she hasn’t been taken into custody. We rate that claim Pants on Fire! 

 
Our Sources

Facebook post, Oct. 1, 2022

The Washington Post, In ruling for Trump, low-profile judge Aileen Cannon invites scrutiny, Sept. 9, 2022

Ballotpedia, Aileen Cannon, visited Oct. 4, 2022

New York Times, ‘Deeply Problematic’: Experts Question Judge’s Intervention in Trump Inquiry, Sept. 5, 2022

Politico, Judge again sides with Trump in Mar-a-Lago documents fight, Sept. 29, 2022