On Friday, President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a motion to recuse U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta from presiding over a lawsuit brought by Election Integrity Watch, an advocacy group accusing Trump and his campaign of illegally conspiring to interfere with the 2020 election.
The motion argues that Judge Mehta’s recusal is necessary because he has shown bias against the president and displayed “personal and deep animus” against Trump and his legal team.
Specifically, the legal motion claims that Judge Mehta made statements critical of the president in previous rulings against him, as well as when he ruled that Trump could not waive a monetary penalty for his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
The motion goes on to cite different articles that Judge Mehta has written, including one in which he discussed “Trump’s outrageous misuse of the powers of the presidency.”
The filing concludes by requesting that Judge Mehta “avoid any appearance of bias or prejudgment by recusing himself from all further proceedings in this matter.”
It is now up to Judge Mehta to decide on President Trump’s motion. If he grants the motion, the case would then be assigned to a different judge.
