All four active U.S. district judges in Middle Tennessee have recused themselves from a lawsuit brought by Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn against former special counsel Jack Smith over the collection of her phone records. Blackburn filed the lawsuit on September 30 over Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. As part of that inquiry investigators obtained phone metadata linked to Blackburn and several other lawmakers.
She said obtaining the records violated her constitutional rights, while Smith has said the records did not include call contents and that his office consulted the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section before issuing the subpoenas. Now, an order filed October 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee said: “All District Judges of the Middle District of Tennessee have recused in this matter.” The order, signed by Chief U.S.
District Judge William L. Campbell Jr., said a judge from outside the district will now be designated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the case will then be reassigned.
The October 5 order does not give a reason for the recusals, and it does not say that any judge has a specific conflict of interest or bias in connection with the litigation. Two of the judges were appointed by President Donald Trump, while one was appointed by Bill Clinton and another by Barack Obama. Newsweek has contacted the court via email for comment.
Blackburn filed the lawsuit on September 30 against Smith in his personal capacity regarding phone toll records obtained during the federal investigation known as Arctic Frost, which examined efforts surrounding the certification of the 2020 presidential election. According to Blackburn’s 46-page complaint, Smith and others who worked on the investigation subpoenaed toll records associated with a cellphone she used for legislative purposes. The lawsuit said those records revealed who Blackburn communicated with and the times and durations of the communications.
It does not allege that investigators intercepted the contents of her calls. Smith has previously said his efforts obtain lawmakers’ phone records was cleared by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and complied with all department regulations. "Through his Arctic Frost witch hunt that targeted conservatives across America and even the President of the United States, Jack Smith perpetrated one of the worst abuses of government power in our nation's history," Blackburn said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
