Special Counsel Jack Smith’s strongly worded motion requesting that Judge Aileen Cannon reconsider an order unsealing the names and statements of some witnesses in the Mar-a-Lago documents case against President Trump could be a harbinger of an even more dramatic move to remove her from the case.

Mr. Smith warns that Judge Cannon’s order would “disclose the identities of numerous potential witnesses, along with the substance of the statements they made to the FBI or the grand jury, exposing them to significant and immediate risks of threats, intimidation, and harassment.” 

The special counsel declares that Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, “applied the wrong legal standard” in deciding to publicly docket the information in respect of the case’s witnesses. This would be a shocking mistake, even for a novice jurist. She insists that the government demonstrate a “compelling interest” to keep the information redacted. He insists that he must only show “good cause.”