The Smith team then made its most important and aggressive move by noting that when judges have issued clearly erroneous jury instructions that doom prosecutions, “courts have permitted the government to obtain writs of mandamus.”
Even buried in a parenthetical as it is, the word “mandamus” jumps off the page as a threat to seek an extraordinary intervention by the appellate court. Smith has laid down the gauntlet, telling Cannon in no uncertain terms that if she doesn’t move to resolve Trump’s frivolous arguments well ahead of trial, he will bring a writ of mandamus to the 11th Circuit along with a motion to recuse her from the case. Providing this road map of his intentions puts Smith on firm footing to challenge the judge if she continues to dither.
See now this is a good article about these legal proceedings. It actually explains the detail that isn’t apparent to non-lawyers and gives an overview of the potential outcomes, rather than a retired lawyer just speculating and jerking themselves off over what might happen.
Yeah, the LA Times has some pretty good writers. They consistently impress me with the thoroughness and (real) fairness of their pieces.