The Justice Department accused Judge Beryl Howell of “hostility” to President Trump and asked that she take herself off a case in which she blocked the president’s attempt to punish a Democrat-connected law firm that helped sponsor the infamous “Steele dossier.”
Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson said Friday that Judge Howell has a history of showing “disdain” for Mr. Trump, including comments in 2023 where she suggested he could lead the country to authoritarianism and, more recently, where she derided his pardons for those involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Justice Department also said Judge Howell made unusual rulings against Mr. Trump in some of the criminal proceedings against him, at one point even finding him a potential flight risk.
“Defendants deserve a court proceeding free from concerns about impartiality. In order to remove the possibility of any impartiality to these proceedings, defendants respectfully request that this court recuse itself,” Mr. Lawson said.
Judge Howell is the second judge this week that the Justice Department has sought to kick off a case.
It asked the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to remove Judge James Boasberg, citing extraordinary rulings that the White House says trample on Mr. Trump’s presidential powers. Mr. Trump himself has called for Judge Boasberg to be impeached.
Both judges sit on the district court in Washington and both were nominated by President Obama.
At least five cases challenging Mr. Trump are now pending before Judge Howell, and three are pending before Judge Boasberg.
The case that drew the Justice Department’s concern involves a presidential executive order attempting to rein in Perkins Coie, a law firm that Mr. Trump said engaged in “dishonest and dangerous activity.”
Perkins Coie was the conduit for the Clinton campaign to hire Fusion GPS, which employed Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier of salacious and unsubstantiated rumors about Mr. Trump. That dossier helped fuel the FBI’s now-discredited probe into Mr. Trump, which included fabricating evidence to obtain a secret surveillance warrant.
Mr. Trump sought to block the government from doing business with the law firm, including banning its lawyers from entering government buildings.
Judge Howell issued a temporary restraining order blocking most of the president’s executive order.
During a hearing on the case, Judge Howell suggested Mr. Trump had “a bee in his bonnet” over the dossier, which contained untrue allegations about the president and Russia.
“He keeps bringing it up. It’s like he doesn’t want any of us to forget Fusion GPS,” Judge Howell said.
