Rep Elise Stefanik called a speech by Judge Beryl Howell ‘highly inappropriate’
The No. 3 House Republican is calling for an ethics probe into a Washington, D.C., judge who has issued decisions in cases related to both former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., lodged a misconduct complaint against DC District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday over a speech she gave in late November while accepting an award from the Women’s White Collar Defense Association.
Without using Trump’s name, Howell blamed the violence at the Capitol on “big lies” and warned of “a very surprising and downright troubling moment in this country when the very importance of facts is dismissed, or ignored.”
Stefanik called the speech “highly inappropriate,” accusing Howell of claiming that “re-electing President Trump will lead to fascism in America.”
“As outlined in detail below, Judge Howell’s partisan speech is obviously highly inappropriate election interference by a federal judge that undermines the public’s trust in our courts. Moreover, the public display of the cozy personal relationships between Judge Howell and her partisan friends who appear before her undermines public trust in judicial independence,” she wrote.
Howell was chief judge of the DC District Court from 2016 until March of this year. On her last day of the job, she turned over communications between Trump and his lawyer to Special Counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of the former president’s handling of classified documents, the Daily Beast reported in March. She also compelled the lawyer to testify before a grand jury.
She has also criticized federal prosecutors for being too lenient in sentencing recommendations for Jan. 6 protesters.
In her letter, Stefanik pointed to Howell’s relationships with Obama-era Attorney General Loretta Lynch and current Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who were also at the event.
Lynch had praised Howell for her handling of “the COVID-19 pandemic that closed the world, the January 6th insurrection and the resulting caseload, and the flurry of activity spurred by the Office of Special Counsel.”
