It seems unlikely that she will take that chance though since she can cause more delay by staying where she it, but who knows, she doesn’t seem to be the sharpest crayon in the box so maybe she will do it.

She has two goals:

1. To entertain all of the ridiculous motions to get the charges dismissed that Trump makes and deny them. This is for the purpose of cover so she can point to those rulings as a defense against accusations of bias, while also delaying the trial until after the election in the hopes that Trump wins and orders the DOJ to drop the charges.

2. If and when the case does go to trial, then she’ll entertain and grant a motion to dismiss once a jury is seated so double jeopardy attaches and Trump walks anyway. She’s already openly all but said as much, as she is intentionally waiting until the start of the trial to rule on some defense motions.

Plus, then she’d probably be free to go on the right wing talk circuit and make piles of money while still supporting Trump.

The appellate courts removing her from the case won’t mean she stops being a judge. Only impeachment and removal can do that, and there’s zero chance that 2/3 of the senate is going to vote to remove her from the bench. Her seat is secure. She’s basically trying to angle for a seat on the Supreme Court, knowing that two judges are likely going to be replaced during the next term and this is her best shot at getting one of them, while also knowing full well that her job is secure even if all of this blows up in her face. In her mind, she’s basically gambling with house money.

At this point, she’s already delayed things enough to push any ruling past the election. There’s less and less downside to having her removed as the date gets closer.

All this for what should be the easiest case against Trump. Did he store boxes full of classified documents on his personal property? Yes. Did he declassify them before leaving office? No. Did he have the right to store them? No. We should be done here.