Judge Beryl Howell delivered a speech last month about the country’s risk of descending into authoritarianism.
MSNBC reports, “The complaint, filed on Friday, revolves around remarks that Howell delivered while accepting an award at the Women’s White Collar Defense Association gala in November. According to Politico, Howell talked about the “big lies” that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection and warned that “we are having a very surprising and downright troubling moment in this country when the very importance of facts is dismissed, or ignored.” Howell did not name Trump in her speech, but Stefanik nonetheless accused the judge of displaying a clear anti-Trump bias and asked the D.C. Circuit’s judicial council to “investigate Judge Howell’s partisan speech.”
Last month, Judge Beryl Howell said: “We are having a very surprising and downright troubling moment in this country when the very importance of facts is dismissed, or ignored.” The Judge gave the rare speech fto lament that many of those convicted for their actions on Jan. 6 fell under the sway of falsehoods. . . . .“My D.C. judicial colleagues and I regularly see the impact of big lies at the sentencing of hundreds, hundreds of individuals who have been convicted for offense conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, when they disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol,” said Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Howell, who served as chief judge of the District Court from 2016 until March and remains on the bench there, also suggested that the dangers evident on the day of the Capitol riot have not passed — in part because some Americans have become unmoored from facts.
According to Politico, “Howell not only did not refer by name to Trump, who is currently the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination next year, she also made no mention of his trial set to open March 4 before one of her colleagues, Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Howell quoted Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson’s claim in her new book that the U.S. “is at a crossroads teetering on the brink of authoritarianism.” The judge also quoted and echoed Richardson’s warning that “Big lies are springboards for authoritarians.