Judge Cannon refused to step down from Trump's classified docs case: NYT

Driving the news: The New York Times reports that the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, Cecilia M. Altonaga, and another judge, unnamed by the newspaper, urged her to consider passing the Trump trial over to a more experienced judge.

• The judges contacted her via phone call shortly after she took on the case, per the NYT.

Catch up quick: Cannon was appointed to the bench during Trump's final months as president.

• She worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020. She had presided over four criminal trials as a federal judge before taking on Trump's case.

State of play: The first judge to call Cannon told her the case would be better handled by a jurist closer to Miami's busiest courthouse, per the NYT.

• The grand jury that indicted Trump sat in this courthouse, and it had a secure facility approved to hold classified information that might be used in the case.

Friction point: Altonaga then called Cannon and said the optics of her overseeing the trial would be bad.

• Cannon was criticized by legal experts for accepting Trump's bid in a lawsuit for a special master to review evidence seized by the FBI and blocked federal prosecutors from reviewing the materials.
• "Like any Senate-confirmed, presidentially appointed judge, she has a life tenure and independent standing and is free to choose to ignore any such advice," the NYT reported.

Go deeper: Judge in Trump classified docs case faces mounting scrutiny