If Jack Smith wants Judge Aileen Cannon off the Donald Trump case, she just handed him the opportunity

When Jack Smith decided to move the Trump classified documents case from Washington DC to Florida, he knew there was about a 15-20% chance the case would end up assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon. But he moved the case anyway, meaning he wasn’t really worried about her.

This did raise the question of whether Smith would ask the 11th Circuit to remove Cannon. If Smith has been waiting for Cannon to make an improper ruling before approaching the 11th Circuit, she just handed it to him. Smith made the routine motion of asking to keep the witness list against Trump under seal, and she denied it.

There are a couple ways Jack Smith can play this. He can use this improper ruling, combined with Cannon’s previous improper appointment of a special master, as grounds to ask the 11th Circuit to go ahead and yank her. Or Smith can simply file an appeal and win this ruling and stick with her as the judge.

Jack Smith will make whatever decision he thinks is best for the case, and that decision will be based on far more information than any of us have to work with. So this is one of those instances where if you trust him in general, then you have to trust him to make the right call. There are reasons for not wanting to spend the time to try to get Cannon removed from the case. But if Smith does want her off the case, she just handed him that opening.