Judiciary
Ethics complaint tossed against federal judge who referred to Lincoln but not Trump in Capitol riot remarks
Then-Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District of Columbia listens during an investiture ceremony in April 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Updated: A Washington, D.C., federal judge no longer faces an ethics complaint stemming from her remarks at a November 2023 awards ceremony in which she commented on “big lies” that impacted the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rioters.
The ethics complaint against U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District of Columbia was tossed in a decision by Chief Judge Jerome A. Holmes of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Denver, Bloomberg Law reports.
The decision didn’t identify Howell by name, nor did it indicate that Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York filed the complaint, but the details track prior media reports about Stefanik’s quest for an ethics investigation against the judge. The case was transferred to the 10th Circuit from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columba Circuit.
Howell spoke at the Women’s White Collar Defense Association as she received a “champion” award, according to prior coverage by Politico and an analysis by the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Criminal Justice Magazine.
“The judge’s comments in this circumstance do not reasonably appear to reflect adversely on impartiality, nor could they lead to disqualification,” Holmes wrote. “The perspective offered is consistent with comments the judge and the judge’s fellow jurists made on the record in numerous cases they presided over prior to the event at issue.”
Politico covered Howell’s remarks.
“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,” Howell said.
Howell also “quoted and echoed” Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson’s warning that “big lies are springboards for authoritarians,” according to Politico. Richardson has written a book claiming that the United States is “teetering on the brink of authoritarianism.”
Howell didn’t refer to President Donald Trump by name, however.
Stefanik had said Howell’s remark were “hardly apolitical” and “plainly inappropriate,” NBC News reported in December 2023. In a statement, Stefanik said the speech “insinuated the election of President Trump will lead to fascism in America” and constituted election interference, according to NBC News and Bloomberg Law.
The complaint also alleged that Howell undermined judicial independence at the event when she referenced close friendships with three people who work or have worked in presidential administrations in political roles.
Holmes noted that Howell did not refer to specific cases and said there is insufficient evidence that the remarks constituted improper extrajudicial statements. When referring to the book, Howell “did not call out a political party or make personal attacks against any politician,” Holmes said. And Howell’s remarks about other award ceremony recipients “do not reasonably convey the impression that these associations could influence the judge’s decision making,” Holmes said.
“In this instance,” Holmes said, “the subject judge did not mention the impending election or any politician by name other than Abraham Lincoln. Nor did the subject judge promote or denigrate any specific candidate. The remarks at issue were made at a law-related event, not a political function, and the organization hosting the event was nonpartisan. The subject judge offered the public the judge’s perspective on the controversial cases of the day after they had been decided, which is permissible conduct.”
The ethics opinion is dated May 22. Ethics opinions by a single judge generally aren’t published until a 42-day period has passed to allow complainants to seek review, explains Jackie Koszczuk, public information officer at the Office of Public Affairs for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The full judicial council does not consider an ethics case unless a review petition is filed.
Updated July 23 at 8:25 a.m. to include information from Jackie Koszczuk.
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
