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Today, a new Accountable.US research investigation, first reported by POLITICO, reveals that President Donald Trump’s judicial nominee Ed Artau appears to have weaponized his current judicial post to help Trump, at the same time that he was seeking a lifetime appointment to the Southern District of Florida from the President.

In February 2025, Florida judge Ed Artau wrote a concurring opinion allowing President Trump’s “preposterous” defamation lawsuit against the members of the Pulitzer Prize board to proceed. Now, new Accountable.US research reveals that Artau appears to have been lobbying for a promotion while helping Donald Trump in his defamation case. That’s because Artau’s self reported disclosure to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows he was actively seeking a seat on the federal bench since November 2024, and by the time he wrote his opinion helping Trump, he had already spoken to both Florida Senators about a potential nomination. Given Artau’s disclosures, Senators may have also already recommended him to the White House by the opinion date.

After Artau’s judicial nomination by Trump, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board questioned whether Artau knew he was under consideration for a judgeship when he drafted his concurring opinion – and that if he did it would “impugn [his] fitness to be [a] federal judge.” 

“Ed Artau has weaponized the bench in an apparent effort to get a promotion, and shown that he will side with Donald Trump even when it means compromising the integrity of the court. But Artau’s nomination shouldn’t surprise anyone,” said Accountable.US President Caroline Ciccone. “It’s all part of Trump’s campaign to capture to courts by handpicking judges whose primary qualification is their loyalty to the President above all else. Artau’s record raises serious questions about his impartiality and makes clear that he is simply not fit to serve as a federal judge.”

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