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The judge presiding in Trump's criminal case over the alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago case may be replaced.
"...There's kind of a three strikes rule," said conservative attorney and co-founder of the Trump-bashing Lincoln Project George Conway said during an appearance on CNN's "Anderson 360" to wade in on the fracas in Florida where U.S. District judge Aileen Cannon is presiding. "I've seen it happen."
"I clerked on the New York Court of Appeals in New York... and I've seen it happen from time to time," he added, referring to judges being removed.
He emphasized that outside some of the anomalies, subbing out a judge is rare.
"It's an unusual thing, but this is an unusual case," Conway admitted. "And the egregiousness of the errors she has made in the past certainly weighs in favor of strongly considering that."
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion to reconsider her recent ruling to let critical investigators and witnesses go to the public record as a "clear error." It added that such a decision defied 11th Circuit Court precedent to publicly release discovery documents in unredacted form at the request of the former president and media groups.
Conway believes there can't be enough caution when it comes to the gravity of a criminal case that once it potentially goes to trial could put the former president in criminal jeopardy.
"Obviously this is a situation where anything involving Donald Trump, you run the risk of witness intimidation," he said. "Remember the E. Jean Carroll case, which was a civil case and not some kind of a federal racketeering criminal case.
"And the judge felt compelled to have an anonymous jury, and that's just something never seen even in most criminal cases with violent offenders."
He believes that the fact that Cannon "does not appear at least in the eyes of the special counsel to be taking into account the witnesses and that they could be intimidated, could be harmed — because we've seen Donald Trump in the past stir up anger and stir up people to do things that they shouldn't do in an effort to help him."
If Cannon doesn't prevent further perceived stumbles, Conway believes she may be forced to recuse herself, citing her reversal by the 11th Circuit court in "brutal fashion twice" as proof she's skating on thin ice.
