'The nuclear button': Special counsel could seek removal of judge in Trump classified docs case, attorneys warn
Special counsel Jack Smith could soon seek to have the judge presiding over the case of former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents recused, prosecutors and defense attorneys warn, pressed to “breaking point” over arguments his office said could taint a trial irrevocably.
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith could soon seek to have the judge presiding over the case of former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents recused, prosecutors and defense attorneys warn, pressed to “breaking point” over arguments his office said could taint a trial irrevocably.
Smith faulted Judge Aileen Cannon in a scathing rebuke for seeming to take at face value Trump’s “fundamentally flawed” claim around a president’s official and personal records when she asked both sides to put forth two competing versions of instructions for jurors in the case and said her request would “distort” the trial. Smith indicated in that filing that if Cannon ruled against federal prosecutors, this could be a trigger for an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit that could remove her from the case.
“He is close to pushing the nuclear button,” said Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg. “It is a high burden to reach, and it is rarely done, but her proposed jury instructions may have pushed him to the breaking point.”
That proposal for jury instructions, a final version of which would be delivered to jurors at the end of a trial, seemed to consider Trump’s interpretation of how of classified documents could be preserved after leaving office, which is at the center of the charge against him.
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