JUDGE JACK SMITH UPDATE:

(Don’t remember seeing this in notables)

Jack Smith Case Handed to Trump-Appointed Judge After Mass Recusal

A Trump-appointed federal judge has been assigned to oversee Senator Marsha Blackburn’s lawsuit against former special counsel Jack Smith after every active district judge in Middle Tennessee recused from the case.

U.S. District Judge Douglas R. Cole, whom President Donald Trump nominated to the federal bench in 2019, was assigned the case by Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, who was designated to preside after all four active district judges in the Middle District of Tennessee withdrew from the litigation, according to an order issued Wednesday.

President George W. Bush appointed Kethledge to the appeals court.

"All District Judges of the Middle District of Tennessee have recused in this matter," the new order said. "Chief Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has designated United States District Judge Douglas R. Cole to preside over the case. Accordingly, the case is hereby reassigned to Judge Cole."

Cole’s assignment resolves an unusual procedural question that had hung over the lawsuit since October 5, when Chief U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr. announced that the entire active district bench had stepped aside. The court has not publicly explained the recusals.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the reassignment, citing the pending litigation.

Why Every Middle Tennessee Judge Recused

Blackburn filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on September 30. The first recusal came two days later, when U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger entered an order withdrawing from the case and returning it to the clerk for reassignment.

Then, on October 5, Campbell issued a broader order saying all district judges in the Middle District of Tennessee had recused. The order said the Sixth Circuit would designate a district judge from outside the district and would reassign the case once it did. The order gave no explanation for why the judges stepped aside.

The district has four active district judges: Campbell and Eli J. Richardson, both appointed by Trump; Trauger, appointed by President Bill Clinton; and Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., appointed by President Barack Obama, according to Newsweek’s previous reporting. So, the withdrawal of the entire active bench crossed partisan lines in terms of the presidents who selected the judges.

Federal law does not require every recusal to stem from the same type of conflict. Under 28 U.S.C. § 455, judges must disqualify themselves when their impartiality "might reasonably be questioned," while the statute separately lists circumstances including personal bias, prior involvement in a matter, certain financial interests and specified relationships to people involved in a case.

Nothing in the October 5 order identifies which, if any, of those provisions prompted the Middle Tennessee judges to step aside.

Margaret Harker, an attorney representing Blackburn through the New Civil Liberties Alliance, previously told Newsweek that the group had been notified of the recusals but had no additional information about their basis.

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https://www.newsweek.com/jack-smith-marsha-blackburn-lawsuit-judge-douglas-cole-recusal-12573340