Columbo The Arizona criminal case against some of Donald Trump’s key allies is facing uproar this week following a revelation that the presiding judge implored white male colleagues to speak out against attacks on Kamala Harris’ race and gender.
Judge Bruce Cohen also invoked the resistance against the Nazis to describe the current political moment.
Cohen hastily scheduled a courtroom conference Wednesday to discuss the future of the case after one of the defendants — represented by a lawyer who also worked on the Trump campaign — said the comments warranted Cohen’s complete removal from the case.
“While Judge Cohen is entitled to his political opinions and speeches,” wrote attorneys David Warrington and Michael Columbo on behalf of Senator Jake Hoffman, one of the defendants in the case, “his rhetoric and incitement precisely reflect the evidence of hostile partisan political fanaticism the core of the motions to dismiss [the case] which have been waiting before the Court for months.”
The development raises the prospect that just as federal and local cases against Trump are sputtering, another high-profile prosecution — in which Trump is described as an unindicted co-conspirator — could also face disruptions.
In April, a grand jury indicted 18 Trump allies — including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Rudy Giuliani and former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward — on charges stemming from efforts to undermine the 2020 election. The grand jury considered whether to indict Trump in the case, but prosecutors led by Attorney General Kris Mayes, an Arizona Democrat, convinced them not to.
Warrington’s role in the effort to disqualify Cohen is notable because he is being considered by Trump for the post of White House counsel in the next administration. Warrington has helped defend Trump in several high-profile investigations, including by the now-defunct House of Representatives committee on Jan. 6 and a civil lawsuit brought by members of Congress and police officers following the attack on the Capitol.
The Arizona Daily Independent revealed Cohen’s comments after reviewing August 2024 emails he sent to colleagues in which he dismissed attacks on Harris as a “DEI mercenary” who would act inappropriately toward generals in the Situation Room. He also mentioned Trump, saying the former president “had referenced two historical female political figures and made references to a particular sexual act and how it affected their trajectory.”
“It is time for me to state my position or be complicit in the depravity,” Cohen wrote.
Cohen was appointed judge in Maricopa County, Arizona, in 2005 by former Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. Since then, he has won several retention elections to remain in his seat. He has indicated in recent months that his retirement is imminent.
In the emails obtained by the Arizona Daily Independent, he invoked a famous essay from the post-World War II era in which he lamented the inability to speak out against Nazism.
“If we cannot or do not want to support others, Martin Niemoller’s words are no longer a historical reference to the atrocities of World War II; those words describe the present,” Cohen wrote, according to the report.
Cohen later apologized to colleagues and said he should not have expressed his views in that forum. Warrington said the apology seemed sincere but was not enough to give Cohen the opportunity to continue presiding over the case.
“[T]It is clear from statements that … Judge Cohen has a deep-seated personal political bias that exceeds his professional judgment, and that he was willing to use the privileges of his office to oppose his alleged political opponents, which of course includes the defendants ” said Warrington. and Columbo wrote.
