The Justice Department asked Judge Beryl Howell on Friday to recuse herself from a case against President Donald Trump, citing a "pattern of hostility" toward him and giving specific examples of such.

“This Court has not kept its disdain for President Trump secret,” DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle wrote in her motion. “It has voiced its thoughts loudly—both inside and outside the courtroom.”

Howell was responsible for a temporary partial block on a Trump executive order stripping Perkins Coie's security clearances because of the law firm's part in disseminating the now-discredited Steele dossier in 2015.

Examples of hostility

Mizelle cited an instance in 2024 when Howell called Trump an authoritarian in a speech.

Howell also wrote in a court order that Trump spread a “revisionist myth” about the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. 

Finally, Mizelle said that Howell's pattern of siding with former special counsel Jack Smith on decisions during cases against Trump showed bias.

That last one might be a bit of a stretch, but the other two should be enough to get Howell to recuse himself, if there's any fairness left in the American justice system.

"Bee in his bonnet"

And then there's his comment during the current case.

“It’s like he doesn’t want any of us to forget Fusion GPS. He doesn’t want any of us to forget that — any of this. He really has a bee in his bonnet about it,” Howell said.

Never mind that Fusion GPS was responsible for the Steele dossier, full of lies about Trump that were passed off as factual and leaked to the press while he was trying to win a presidential race.

It's good to see the DOJ refusing to put up with this kind of blatant bias and fighting to stop it.

Response required

Judges typically must respond to recusal requests by either handing the case in question off to another judge or explaining their decision to stay on the case.

When a request for recusal is made, judges typically need to either pass the case to a different judge or respond with an explanation for their decision to stay on.

Howell has not yet responded, so we'll see what happens.