“Judge Aileen Cannon should be reassigned in the federal classified documents case against former President Donald Trump if the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses and remands her decision, according to an amicus brief filed today on behalf of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, former United States district judge Nancy Gertner, New York University Law School professor emeritus Stephen Gillers and Hofstra University Law School professor James Sample by Keker, Van Nest and Peters LLP. Judge Cannon’s overwhelming appearance of bias in Trump’s favor, her disregard of existing precedent and her inability or unwillingness to avoid delay and move the case forward give the Court more than adequate grounds to reassign the case. Judge Cannon was randomly assigned to Trump’s felony classified documents case, and over the course of more than eleven months made a series of controversial decisions, ultimately dismissing the indictment by ruling that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. Prior to the dismissal, Judge Cannon suggested that some White House files could be permanently withheld from criminal investigators in the Justice Department under executive privilege, inexplicably called for jury instructions favorable to Trump early in the case despite facing more immediate legal questions and stalled the case until Justice Clarence Thomas’s lone concurrence in the presidential immunity case called into question whether Smith’s appointment was legal, after which she quickly threw out the indictment on the same grounds. “At every possible opportunity, Judge Cannon has demonstrated her apparent bias in favor of Donald Trump,” said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. “She has at every stage made this case more difficult than the law mandated, and she then dismissed it on largely unprecedented grounds, delivering a significant win to Trump. Should the Court reverse her decision, it must also ensure that the case is reassigned to allow it to proceed fairly and expeditiously and to help restore the credibility of the federal court system.” In addition to her dubious legal assertions, Judge Cannon appeared to have slow-walked the case, reinforcing Trump’s well-known legal strategy of delaying court proceedings to evade accountability. Beyond failing to resolve numerous pretrial motions and issues, Judge Cannon did not set a new trial date despite both parties agreeing earlier that the trial could begin in the summer of 2023. If the Court reverses Judge Cannon’s decision, it would not be the first time—in fact, it would be the third time in this prosecution that it has done so. “Judge Cannon was presented with a historic case that will shape how, and if, the most powerful figures in government can be held accountable by the law,” said Bookbinder. “She has repeatedly failed to rise to the occasion. Given her apparent lack of impartiality, the case should not return to her.”