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.

[1][6][7] 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.

[3][7] 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.

[11][12] 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.

[15] In June 2019, the office of Senator Marco Rubio indicated to Cannon that he was considering her for the United States district judge position.

[26][27] In May 2024, NPR reported that Cannon had violated internal judiciary rules and federal ethics law when she did not timely disclose that in 2021 and 2022, she was privately reimbursed when attending two legal seminars ("Sage Lodge Colloquium") at a luxury resort in Montana organized by George Mason University, and only disclosed it when NPR enquired about the matter; Cannon's court clerk responded by blaming the missing information on "inadvertent" technical issues.

[28] Cannon was reimbursed by the university's Antonin Scalia Law School, which has been described by The New York Times as an intended paragon of "conservative legal scholarship and influence".

[29] According to ABC News, Cannon's name was on a list of possible candidates for United States Attorney General if Donald Trump was victorious in the 2024 presidential election.

The public defense attorney objected to closing the courtroom, arguing that doing so violates the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, which Cannon overruled.

[46][47] In her ruling, Cannon cited exceptional "stigma associated with the subject seizure", since Trump was a former president, as well as the potential for great "reputational harm" from any future indictment based on "property that ought to be returned".

[59][63] On September 29, Cannon overruled procedures proposed by the special master she had appointed, senior federal judge Raymond Dearie, who had been nominated by Trump's legal team.

Instead, Cannon agreed with Trump's legal team on multiple issues and set procedures including extending the deadline for the review.

[76][77][78] The Eleventh Circuit also found that when Trump did not explain what materials he still needed to return, or why, the "district court was undeterred by this lack of information".

[73][79][80] The National Law Journal wrote that the Eleventh Circuit's decision "reads as a rebuke of" Cannon, with New York University law professor Peter M. Shane commenting that "[i]f an appellate court tells a lower court that we can only accept your judgment by betraying one of the nation's founding principles, that's a pretty strong rebuke.

[75] On December 8, the Eleventh Circuit ended the special master's review and permitted the government to use non-classified seized material in its investigation.

The criminal complaint against the Houston woman stated that she appears to "suffer from severe mental impairments with symptoms including paranoia and delusions".

[91] Richard Painter, Norman Eisen and Fred Wertheimer, former White House chief ethics lawyers and a good government advocate respectively, jointly called for Cannon's recusal, citing her conduct in the previous civil case, which they described as "fundamentally erroneous ... went well outside the judicial norm and was roundly criticized by the Court of Appeals".

[36] In late June 2023, Cannon ruled against the Department of Justice, denying its request to keep the identities of 84 potential witnesses under seal.

[95] In August 2023, Cannon ruled in favor of Trump on the issue of potential conflicts of interest regarding co-defendant Walt Nauta's lawyer Stanley Woodward representation of possible witnesses in the case.

Instead, Cannon instructed Woodward and prosecutors to discuss "the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding" to continue actions in this federal case.

[98] After Trump's legal team in September 2023 requested an extension to the case, Cannon delayed a crucial pre-trial hearing on the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) from October 2023 to February 2024, while also ruling that she would only ponder on further scheduling in March 2024.

[101][102] Politico reported that Cannon "has run the pretrial process at a leisurely pace that will make a postponement [of the scheduled May 2024 trial] almost inevitable, according to experts on criminal prosecutions related to classified information"; Politico further states that if the trial is postponed to after the 2024 United States presidential election, Trump could become president and would then be "expected" to instruct the Justice Department to end the case.

[110] Barbara McQuade, a law professor and former federal prosecutor, opined that the Presidential Records Act "is just not relevant here in any way it all; it provides no defense.

To even allow it to be argued at trial would create confusion for the jury", while former federal judge Nancy Gertner commented that Cannon's instruction was "very troubling" because it was "giving credence to arguments that are on their face absurd".

[101] At this point, The Guardian stated that Cannon has "generally given wide deference to Trump and his legal team, granting nearly all extensions they have requested and entertaining his most brazen defense theories, even if they have been without precedent in Espionage Act cases".

Often, her acceptance of Mr. Trump's unorthodox claims have resulted in significant delays in bringing the charges in the classified documents case in front of a jury.

[102] While Donald Trump has continually denounced many of the judges presiding over his legal cases, including Tanya Chutkan, Arthur Engoron and Juan Merchan, he has not criticized Cannon.

[120][121] The Washington Post stated in May 2024 that Cannon's "rulings are generally hailed as uniquely wise" by Trump supporters, and she has "been celebrated by adherents of the QAnon movement".

and that Biden was "locked & loaded ready to take me out", prosecutors requested for a gag order on Trump pertaining to law enforcement.

[127] Another decision that invited intense scrutiny from legal commentators and the general public alike, the dismissal incited calls from Monica Lewinsky for Congress to impeach Cannon.