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The Trump administration filed a motion on Friday seeking to disqualify Judge Beryl A. Howell from presiding over a lawsuit brought by the law firm Perkins Coie over an executive order stripping its lawyers of their security clearances and denying them access to government buildings.<\/p>\n
In the motion, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that Judge Howell, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, had \u201crepeatedly demonstrated partiality against and animus towards the president,\u201d complaining about comments she made during hearings in the Perkins Coie case, as well as remarks in other proceedings and public appearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefendants deserve a court proceeding free from concerns about impartiality,\u201d the motion read, demanding that Judge Howell recuse herself and \u201creturn this matter to assignment before a judge free from any appearance of hostility toward this administration and is otherwise unconnected with any matter related\u201d to past investigations of the president.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the Trump administration tried to get another judge on the court removed, accusing Judge James E. Boasberg of \u201chighly unusual and improper procedures\u201d in a case challenging the Trump administration\u2019s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act<\/a> of 1798 to accelerate deportations of Venezuelan migrants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Last week, Judge Howell issued a temporary restraining order<\/a> in the Perkins Coie case, precluding the administration from barring the firm\u2019s lawyers from accessing the government, though it did not reinstitute their security clearances.<\/p>\n It was her latest ruling against President Trump and his allies, who have taken umbrage at some of her past decisions, particularly in her oversight of grand jury investigations in inquiries involving his ties with Russia and his handling of classified documents.<\/p>\n In 2019, Judge Howell ruled that the House, then run by Democrats, had a right to view<\/a> the secret grand jury materials that had been redacted from a report examining Mr. Trump\u2019s dealings with Russia, prepared by a team led by then-special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.<\/p>\n