Here's the piece. From the intro:
A Florida state judge was lobbying for a seat on the federal bench. After he sided with the president in a defamation case, Donald Trump gave him one.
Ed Artau, now a nominee to be a district court judge in Florida, met with staff in the office of Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott to angle for the nomination less than two weeks after Trump’s election last fall, according to a new Senate disclosure obtained by POLITICO. In the midst of his interviews, Artau was part of a panel of judges that ruled in Trump’s favor in the president’s case against members of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
About two weeks after the court published his opinion — which called for the overturning of a landmark Supreme Court case that made it harder for public officials to sue journalists — he interviewed with the White House Counsel’s Office. In May, Trump announced his nomination to the federal judiciary.
Critics raised concerns about Artau’s impartiality at the time of the announcement, in light of his ruling in the Pulitzer case. But the overlapping timeline of that decision with his meetings with Senate staff and the White House Counsel’s Office has not previously been reported.
Artau did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said Trump had full confidence in his nominee and anticipated Artau’s confirmation.
The Sun-Sentinel recently raised these concerns in an editorial (that the Politico article cites above).
2 comments:
It seems that another Florida state court judge was auditioning for a seat on the FL 3rd DCA in a similar fashion according to The Florida Bulldog article of 3/13/25 ( "Judicial favoritism in Miami paternity case benefits Trump advisor Jason Miller
" https://www.floridabulldog.org/2025/03/judicial-favoritism-benefits-trump-advisor-jason-miller/ )
Not sure how that at all helps even if it’s true with a DeSantis state court appointment.
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