Government

Judge Curb Stomps Trump Request To Recuse For Crime Of Being A Clinton Appointee

You tried, sweetie. But you really shouldn't have.

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Trump Grimace

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty)

On Monday, Donald Trump filed a motion to disqualify US District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks from hearing the temper tantrum  he’s about to throw on the federal docket. Because Judge Middlebrooks was appointed in 1997 by Bill Clinton, Trump’s lawyers demanded that the jurist recuse himself from hearing this fundraising vehicle cosplaying as a civil RICO suit against Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and half the Democratic establishment.

“Due to the fact that the Defendant, HILLARY CLINTON is being sued by her former opponent for the United States Presidency, an election that she lost, regarding serious allegations on her part, as well as her allies, of engaging in fraudulent and unlawful activities against the Plaintiff, and because her husband nominated Judge Middlebrooks to the Federal Bench, there exists a reasonable basis that Judge Middlebrooks’ impartiality will be questioned,” his lawyers argued.

Then they implied darkly that there might be some kind of inappropriate connection between the judge and the Clintons. Perhaps they all get together at George Soros’s house over Ramadan and plot to recruit more transgender athletes.

Moreover, the Plaintiff is unaware of the exact extent of the relationship between Judge Middlebrooks and the Defendant, HILLARY CLINTON, herself, who acted as First Lady of the United States, during the time of the Judge’s nomination to Federal Court Judge. The Plaintiff is also unaware if the Judge has current relationship with either the Defendant, HILLARY CLINTON, or her husband, and how far back the relationship has existed.

Why, yes, this was Alina Habba, the lawyer who supposedly embarrasses all the other lawyers in Trumpland, along with Peter Ticktin, Trump’s boarding school roommate and the proprietor of the website legalbrains.com.

Safe to say Judge Middlebrooks was not amused, because last night he tersely denied the motion, citing decades of precedent that the identity of the appointing executive alone cannot be grounds for recusal.

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“To warrant recusal, something more must be involved than solely my appointment to the bench twenty-five years ago by the spouse of a litigant now before me,” he wrote, adding that “the conclusory assertions in Plaintiff’s Motion do not supply any conceivable, additional grounds. I have never met or spoken with Bill or Hillary Clinton. Other than my appointment by Bill Clinton, I do not now have nor have I ever had any relationship with the Clintons.”

Judge Middlebrooks noted that during his nomination, he received the support of both Florida’s Senators, one of whom was Republican Connie Mack (back in the days of blue slips, innocent times), and was unanimously confirmed by a Republican controlled senate.

He also observed in a footnote that the plaintiff seems to have tried very hard, and not for the first time, to get in front of a judge he himself put on the bench. Trump lives in West Palm Beach with its two sitting federal judges, including Middlebrooks, both of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents. And yet this case was filed in Fort Pierce, where neither the former president nor any of the defendants appears to reside and where none of the “injuries” took place. (Leave aside the issue of personal jurisdiction over the dozens of defendants, which is only one of the many reasons this LOLsuit is DOA.)

I note that Plaintiff filed this lawsuit in the Fort Pierce division of this District, where only one federal judge sits: Judge Aileen Cannon, who Plaintiff appointed in 2020. Despite the odds, this case landed with me instead. And when Plaintiff is a litigant before a judge that he himself appointed, he does not tend to advance these same sorts of bias concerns. See, e.g., Donald J. Trump v. Wisc. Elections Comm’n, No. 20-cv-1785 (E.D. Wis. 2020) (Judge Brett Ludwig); Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., et al., v. Sec. of Commonwealth of Pa., No. 20-cv-3371 (3d Cir. 2020) (Judge Stephanos Bibas); Comm. on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, No. 19-cv-01974 (D.D.C. 2019) (Judge Trevor McFadden).

Auspicious beginning! This is going to be a three-ring circus — but not for very long.

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Trump v. Clinton [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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