On Thursday, Demand Progress and Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) filed an ethics complaint against Edward L. Artau, a Florida judge who was nominated by President Donald Trump to a federal district court after delivering a favorable ruling for Trump in his defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Board. The ethics complaint asks the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission to investigate Artau for potentially breaking rules requiring judges to recuse themselves to avoid conflicts of interest, remain impartial, avoid impropriety, and avoid giving false statements.

Politico reported that Artau, who sought for Trump to nominate him shortly after the president won the 2024 presidential election, later ruled in Trump’s favor as part of a panel of state appellate judges deciding whether to allow the president’s lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board to move forward. After joining a favorable panel ruling for Trump, and after going out of his way to write a gratuitous solo concurrence praising the lawsuit’s claims on the merits, Artau was nominated to be a judge on South Florida’s U.S. trial court. Artau later gave an incomplete and misleading testimony about these events to the Senate Judiciary Committee while under oath.

“A federal judge’s goal should be upholding the law and the American people’s confidence in the judiciary, not delivering whatever the president wants so that they can get a job,” said Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at Demand Progress. “Judge Ed Artau’s behind-closed-doors jockeying for his nomination, his failure to recuse himself from the Pulitzer lawsuit and his misleading testimony to the Senate all raise bright red flags that need to be investigated.”

Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said: “Judges should be safeguarding us against President Trump’s frivolous attacks on the free press, the First Amendment and the rule of law. Instead, Judge Artau seems eager to facilitate Trump’s unconstitutional antics in exchange for a job. That’s far from the level of integrity that the Rules of Professional Conduct demand. Attorney disciplinary commissions need to rise to this moment and not tolerate ethical violations that impact not only individuals before the court but our entire democracy.”

Read the Complaint here or below.