Trump admin targets judge over wife's 'numerous critical statements'
President Donald Trump and his Department of Justice are targeting the Oregon judge set to seek an emergency order to stop the president's deployment of troops to Portland, with the administration filing a "suggestion of recusal" Thursday to force the federal judge to recuse himself from the case over his wife's "numerous critical statements."
The 10-page legal challenge was issued just a day before lawyers for the city of Portland and state of Oregon were set to urge Judge Michael H. Simon to stop the Oregon National Guard from deploying to protect the federal immigration building in Portland and return control to the governor, Oregon Live reports.
The legal move names Donald J. Trump, President of the United States; Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War; the U.S. Department of War; Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security; and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as defendants.
"Defendants suggest that Judge Michael H. Simon recuse himself from Defendants’ Suggestion of Recusal... of 10 this case to avoid the appearance of partiality, which reasonably can be expected to undermine public confidence in the fairness of these proceedings," according to court records.
"Plaintiffs the State of Oregon and the City of Portland challenge the federalization and deployment of 200 Oregon National Guardsmen to protect federal property and federal personnel in Oregon," according to the legal filing.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), the judge's wife and representative of Oregon's First Congressional District, is mentioned throughout the 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.
The administration argues that his wife's "unique factual, legal, and political role" could make the judge biased, as she "has played in the central events of this lawsuit may create the appearance of partiality."
John Eastman, the onetime Trump attorney who was disbarred over his role during the Trump 2020 election plot, shared his reaction on X:
"The seriousness of purpose and extraordinary preparation and legal analysis coming out of Trump's DOJ, in response to the massive amount of legal challenges to his policies, never ceases to amaze me. This morning they filed a 'suggestion for recusal' of the judge handling the Portland national guard case because his wife, a member of Congress, has been an outspoke critic of Trump's policy and has even contended it is illegal, the very issue her husband will be deciding."