The Department of Justice filed a motion on March 21 requesting District of Columbia District Judge Beryl Howell disqualify herself from Perkins Coie LLP’s case challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order against it due to her publicly declared disdain for the president and her connection with essential aspects of the case.
“This Court has not kept its disdain for President Trump secret,” Chad Mizelle, acting associate attorney general, wrote in his motion. “It has voiced its thoughts loudly—both inside and outside the courtroom.”
Inside the courtroom, Mizelle noted that during now-former special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump, she found “reason to believe that the former President would ‘flee from prosecution,’” and “pierced attorney-client privilege, ordering President Trump’s attorney to testify before a D.C. grand jury” investigating the alleged retention of classified documents in a case in South Florida. …