(JustPatriots.com)- The federal judge overseeing former President Trump’s lawsuit against the DNC and Hillary Clinton rejected the motion that he recuse himself from the case over his being appointed by former President Bill Clinton.
In a motion filed last Monday, Trump’s attorneys argued that since Hillary’s husband appointed Judge Donald Middlebrooks to the bench and the extent of his relationship with the Clintons is unknown, he may be biased toward Hillary Clinton.
But in a 5-page ruling on Wednesday, Judge Middlebrooks rejected the motion, arguing that his only connection to Bill Clinton was being appointed to the bench. He also suggested the motion to recuse was Donald Trump doing a little “judge shopping.”
Middlebrooks pointed out that every federal judge is appointed by a sitting president. And if he was to recuse himself, then theoretically, every federal judge could be viewed as “beholden” to the president who appointed him simply by virtue of their appointments. He said without any firm evidence of bias, he should be considered impartial.
Middlebrooks wrote that judges have a responsibility to recuse themselves if there are grounds for the claim of bias, but they also have a duty not to step aside if the complaints are part of “litigation strategies,” or, as it is more commonly known, “judge shopping.”
Trump filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida against Hillary, the DNC, and other high-profile figures involved in the Russiagate hoax in late March.
The lawsuit accuses Hillary Clinton and her cohorts of actions that constitute criminal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The suit alleges that the defendants “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative” that Donald Trump colluded “with a hostile foreign sovereignty.”
On the day Trump’s lawsuit was filed, the case was assigned to Judge Middlebrooks, who was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1997 to the Southern District of the Florida federal court.
The Southern District court’s operating procedures say that the assignment schedule is designed to prevent litigants from engaging in judge shopping and lawyers are instructed not to attempt to do so.
