Doj Moves To Boot Federal Judge From Perkins Coie Case

As tensions between the White House and the federal judiciary continue to rise, litigators at the Justice Department are increasingly seeking to have judges removed from cases where they have ruled against the administration.

On Friday, the Justice Department filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell from overseeing a lawsuit brought by major law firm Perkins Coie. The suit is challenging an executive order that lawyers said was designed to destroy the firm in retaliation for previous work on behalf of President Donald Trump’s political enemies.

Howell has “repeatedly demonstrated partiality against and animus towards the president,” a Justice Department attorney wrote in the motion. It pointed to Howell’s previous statements regarding Jan. 6 rioters, rulings she made while overseeing sealed matters connected to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of Trump and her comments during the initial hearing in the Perkins case.

“Reasonable observers may well view this Court as insufficiently impartial to adjudicate the meritless challenges to President Trump’s efforts to implement the agenda that the American people elected him to carry out,” the motion reads.

Earlier this week, a separate Justice Department attorney sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, calling for Chief Judge James Boasberg to be removed from an ongoing case regarding the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. The letter took issue with what it called Boasberg’s “highly unusual and improper procedures.”

The appeals court has thus far declined to act on the Justice Department’s request and Boasberg remains on the case. Howell will be the one to rule on the Justice Department’s motion and it’s unlikely she will disqualify herself.

Seeking the disqualification of a judge is a highly unusual move, especially coming from the Justice Department. Generally, efforts to remove a judge from a case are reserved for times where there is a clear conflict of interest or blatant misconduct by a judge.

Prosecutors in Smith’s office faced public pressure last year to move for Judge Aileen Cannon’s disqualification over her handling of Trump’s classified documents criminal case. At the time, Trump called attacks on Cannon an effort to “illegally intimidate and harass” a judge that he had appointed.

“They are calling her terrible names, wrongfully threatening her with Impeachment, and disrespecting her, all because they want her to act like the dishonest, politically biased, and conflicted Judges in New York, and not like the fair and impartial Judge that she is,” Trump said in an April 2024 Truth Social post.

Smith’s prosecutors never asked Cannon to remove herself from the classified documents case. Cannon dismissed those charges against Trump last summer.

Trump is no stranger to attempting to remove judges from cases. His lawyers filed motions to disqualify judges in his Washington election interference criminal case, his Manhattan hush money criminal case and his Manhattan civil fraud case. All those motions were denied.

Notably, Howell and Boasberg both served as the chief judge of the federal courthouse in Washington while sealed proceedings connected to Smith’s investigations into Trump were taking place. Howell passed that seat to Boasberg in March 2023.

In that role, both judges were responsible for rulings that allowed prosecutors to obtain evidence and testimony that Trump and his allies had attempted to claim as privileged. Friday’s motion for Howell’s recusal argues those rulings are evidence of her bias against Trump, accusing her of “enabling the improper efforts of disgraced former prosecutor Jack Smith.”

Last week, Howell entered a court order temporarily preventing the administration from enforcing the executive order’s most serious sanctions against Perkins Coie. Litigation in that case continues and Howell is set to consider arguments on the constitutionality of the executive order next month.