A federal judge targeted by President Donald Trump and his Department of Justice recused himself Friday just hours before he was set to oversee a case involving the Trump administration's deployment of troops to Portland.
Judge Michael H. Simon has been replaced by Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, according to Anna Bower, senior editor of Lawfare Media, who wrote about the change on Bluesky.
Immergut has previously sided with the Trump administration's policies in a previous ruling, ordering an arrested farmworker to remain in ICE custody, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The president and the DOJ had filed a "suggestion of recusal" to urge Simon to step down from the case over his wife, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici's (D-OR) "numerous critical statements."
Simon's wife represents Oregon's First Congressional District and is mentioned throughout the 10-page filing.
"She has told Defendants that she “reject[s] [the] decision to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon,” and she “demand[ed] . . . that [they] rescind [their] order.”
The Trump administration alleges that Bonamici "has made factual assertions and offered legal conclusions about the propriety of deploying Guardsmen, suggesting that the deployment would result in 'violations of law.' She also participated in and spoke at a press conference with Governor Tina Kotek and Plaintiffs’ other elected officials the day before this lawsuit was filed on the very subject of this suit and is seen standing behind and then next to Governor Kotek in a video that Plaintiffs hyperlink to in their complaint."
"To be sure, Defendants recognize that Judge Simon and Representative Bonamici speak for themselves, not for each other," according to the court filing.
Within hours, Simon had recused himself.