An anonymous report claiming Judge Aileen Cannon is on President Trump’s short list for attorney general could be kryptonite to her prospects as presiding judge in his Mar-a-Lago criminal case.

The report, from ABC News, claims that if Trump wins the election, he is considering asking Judge Cannon to serve as America’s top police official. Judge Cannon would be second on that list, behind only Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Jay Clayton.

ABC News did not disclose the source of the report. The network has a good source in the special counsel’s office, and its moderators have been accused of obvious bias in favor of Vice President Harris during the presidential debate.

Trump has denounced ABC News as even worse than NBC News, which includes MSNBC, and his lawsuit against ABC News and its host George Stephanopoulos — for saying he was found guilty of rape — has entered the submission.

The revelation comes as the 11th United States Circuit of Appeals prepares for special counsel Jack Smith’s appeal of her decision to dismiss the case. The prospect that Judge Cannon could advance during a second term for Trump has been raised another case, one involving not Trump, but one of his would-be assassins, Ryan Routh.

Judge Cannon was randomly assigned to his case, and Mr. Routh asked that she be removed. Mr. Routh mentions the possibility that, if he becomes president, he “would have the authority to appoint Your Honor to a federal judgeship on a higher court, should a vacancy occur”—that is, the Supreme Court. He claims her ties to Trump mean she would be biased in her handling of the prosecution of the man accused of plotting to kill him.

The judge rejected that logic on Tuesday, writing that she has “never spoken to or met with former President Trump except in connection with his required attendance at a formal legal proceeding, through counsel. I have no ‘relationship to the alleged victim’ in any reasonable sense of the term.” She derided as “media rumours” speculation about a possible promotion if the 45th president becomes the 47th.

Judge Cannon’s ruling that Attorney General Garland appointed Mr. Smith illegally and that the blunder made the record defective was a stunning victory for the 45th president, turning the case that many observers they considered him the strongest of the four organized against Trump. Mr Garland went on television to accuse her of making a “fundamental mistake of law” to discern a threat to “structural freedom”.

The finding that Mr. Garland did not have the legal authority to appoint Mr. Smith without Senate confirmation was only the most dramatic of a series of rulings by Judge Cannon that have tilted in Trump’s favor.

In an earlier phase of the case, she appointed a special master to accompany the government’s collection of evidence from the Palm Beach mansion. The 11th Circuit rejected it and reasoned that its logic “would violate the fundamental limitations of the separation of powers.”

Columbia-born Judge Cannon was appointed to the federal bench by Trump in 2020, in the final months of his presidency. Prior to joining the bank, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Florida.

She has been at odds with Mr. Smith throughout the case, with potential jury instructions and witness secrecy serving as flashpoints. The special counsel also chafed at the deliberate pace of the proceedings.

Her denial of the charges, however, shifts the case to those who once accused her of engineering a “radical reordering of our case law that limits the involvement of federal courts in criminal investigations.”

If the 11th Circuit reverses it again, the case will be returned to the courtroom for further proceedings. No court date has been set. Mr. Smith has long pushed for an accelerated schedule. Whoever loses to the circuit riders is likely to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Smith only asked the 11th Circuit to reverse Judge Cannon, not reverse it. The case that her time at the top of the case it should end however, it is before the appeals court – courtesy of him curiae friends such as Laurence Tribe and George Conway.

They argue that Judge Cannon’s ruling “falls well within the bounds of reasonable judicial decision-making” and attests to a “pattern of untenable rulings” and “inexplicable handling of procedural matters.” They argues that the case be redistributed in preventive detention.

Federal law allows a superior court to take this drastic step if a lower court judge has “engaged in conduct giving rise to the appearance of . . . a lack of impartiality in the mind of a reasonable member of the public.” The standard is a demanding one, and adverse decisions like the one Judge Cannon handed down to Mr. Smith would not suffice. Nor the simple fact that Trump appointed Judge Cannon.

The 11th Circuit, however, could choose to exercise supervisory authority its spontaneousthat is, without being requested by one of the parties. Such power was exercised by the Second United States Circuit of Appeals when it removed Judge Shira Scheindlin Floyd v. City of New Yorka case involving the “stop, question and frisk policy” then in use by New York City. The 11th Circuit may also consider the issue already raised by Messrs. Tribe, Conway and a liberal legal organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, known as CREW, is one of the groups agitating for President Trump to be disqualified from office under the 14th Amendment. When the matter finally reached the Supreme Court, proponents of the scheme were humiliated by a unanimous decision of the Nine, which found that the 14th Amendment could not be used against it.

Trump and Mr. Smith have now presented their arguments to the 11th Circuit to determine whether Judge Cannon’s decision should be upheld or overturned. A date for oral arguments has not yet been set. If Trump wins the election, he is likely to insist that his attorney general fire Mr. Smith and drop the appeal, although the special counsel may choose to resist his dismissal. If Trump loses, the prosecutor would have years to lead the case on appeal.

The 11th Circuit, however, could argue that the chatter surrounding Justice Cannon’s future is exactly the kind of partisan patina worth redistributing, even if the whispers aren’t of her making. ABC News reports that “the judge’s name was added to the list long after the classified documents case was thrown out in the summer,” meaning after she gave Trump his signature legal victory.