On Friday, March 21, 2025, Politico reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell from overseeing a lawsuit involving the prominent law firm Perkins Coie. This lawsuit challenges an executive order that the firm claims is an attempt to undermine it in retaliation for its previous legal work for political opponents of President Donald Trump.

The DOJ’s motion alleges that Judge Howell has shown partiality against President Trump, citing her past remarks regarding the January 6 rioters, her rulings on sealed matters linked to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations, and her comments during the initial hearing of the Perkins Coie case. According to the motion, “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.”

In a separate development last week, another DOJ attorney reached out to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, requesting the removal of Chief Judge James Boasberg from a case concerning the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. The letter criticized what it described as Boasberg’s “highly unusual and improper procedures.” However, the appeals court has not acted on this request, and Boasberg remains assigned to the case.

The motion to disqualify a judge is considered a rare action for the DOJ, typically reserved for instances of clear conflict of interest or significant judicial misconduct. Last year, prosecutors in Smith’s office faced public pressure to seek the disqualification of Judge Aileen Cannon over her management of Trump’s classified documents case. Trump, at the time, described the calls for Cannon’s removal as an attempt to intimidate and harass a judge he had appointed.

Trump has a history of attempting to remove judges from cases involving him. His legal team has filed motions to disqualify judges in several high-profile cases, including the Washington election interference criminal case and the Manhattan hush money criminal case, as well as a civil fraud case in Manhattan. All of these motions were denied.

Judge Howell and Chief Judge Boasberg previously served as chief judges of the federal courthouse in Washington during the time when sealed proceedings related to Smith’s investigations were conducted. In this capacity, they were responsible for rulings that allowed prosecutors to gather evidence and testimony that Trump and his allies sought to protect as privileged information.

The DOJ’s motion for Howell’s disqualification argues that her previous rulings demonstrate bias against Trump, claiming she has “enabled the improper efforts of disgraced former prosecutor Jack Smith.” This assertion follows Howell’s recent court order, which temporarily halted the enforcement of the most severe sanctions outlined in the executive order against Perkins Coie. Howell is scheduled to consider arguments regarding the constitutionality of the executive order in the coming month.

 

 

Source: Politico