Judge recuses himself from Arizona ‘fake electors’ case after remarks about Harris attacks

After encouraging colleagues to denounce insults on Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign, an Arizona judge recused himself on Tuesday from presiding over the state’s election subversion lawsuit against supporters of President-elect Trump and “fake electors.” Following the discovery of an email from August 29 that they claimed demonstrated “utter contempt” for Trump, defense lawyers requested that Maricopa County Judge Bruce Cohen resign.

Cohen expresses sorrow in the email for keeping quiet when Harris was called a “DEI hire” and claims that his “blood boiled” when Trump shared a sexual joke about Harris and his opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Additionally, he cited the Holocaust to highlight the need for white men to support women who are subjected to discrimination.

Court documents reveal that he wrote, “It is time for me to state my piece or be complicit in the depravity.” He apologized in another email to his fellow judges the next day for letting his “passion” interfere with his judgment. Republican state senator Jake Hoffman’s lawyers filed the request to disqualify Cohen. Hoffman was one of 11 Republicans who sent a paper to Congress erroneously claiming that Trump had won Arizona’s 2020 presidential election.

The alternate electors plan did not use the actual Electoral College votes voted for President Biden, but rather depended on then-Vice President Mike Pence to certify slates of electors who supported Trump in battleground areas. On January 6, 2021, Pence refused. The judge’s “deep-seated personal political bias” overrode his professional judgment, according to Hoffman’s lawyer Michael Columbo.

Columbo stated, “Senator Hoffman has understandably lost confidence that the Court can adjudicate this case with the impartiality that all parties are due, given his liberty at stake in this baseless political prosecution.” Although the judge has the option to disqualify himself, a representative for Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) told The Hill that the judge’s email was “not reflective of bias,” but rather a “cry for decency and respect.” “But the language and tone employed in defense counsel’s recent motions to disparage Arizona’s chief legal officer and now the independent judiciary are unacceptable,” the statement read.

But according to Mayes spokeswoman Richie Taylor, “the tone and rhetoric used in motions recently submitted by defense counsel to attack Arizona’s chief legal officer and now the independent judiciary are beyond the pale.” Politics has never been the driving force behind this lawsuit; justice and the rule of law are its only goals. These indictments were handed down by an independent grand jury following a thorough examination of the evidence. He claimed that defense attorneys’ heated language and unfounded charges compromised the fairness of the legal system and diverted attention from the case’s facts.

There are still 16 defendants facing charges in the Arizona election subversion case, including Trump’s longstanding buddy Rudy Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. They entered a not guilty plea. Despite not being a defendant in the case, Trump is referred to in the charging documents as “unindicted co-conspirator 1.” Trial is scheduled for January 5, 2026, but there may be delays due to the judge’s recusal. On Sunday, Mayes promised to pursue the case even if Trump won the 2024 election.