All four active federal judges in Middle Tennessee have stepped aside from Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s lawsuit against Jack Smith over her phone records, so an outside judge will hear the case.
Chief U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr. signed an order filed Monday stating that every district judge on the Middle District of Tennessee bench has recused from the case. The order makes plain that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will designate a judge from outside the district to take the assignment.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 30 by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., names former special counsel Jack Smith as an individual defendant. It centers on the collection of toll records from a cellphone she used for legislative work during the Arctic Frost investigation.
That probe examined alleged efforts to interfere with the transfer of power after the 2020 election and the certification of the Electoral College vote. Blackburn’s 46-page complaint says the records showed whom she contacted and the times and durations of those calls, though not the contents.
She seeks court declarations that Smith’s appointment and the records collection were unlawful, orders to destroy or return certain materials and records, and $1 in nominal damages. The complaint alleges violations of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, the First and Fourth Amendments, and federal civil rights law. It also challenges the legality of Smith’s appointment as special counsel.
The order Campbell signed does not explain why the full bench stepped aside. It does not cite a conflict of interest or bias. Federal recusal standards require judges to leave a case when their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” and on more specific grounds that include personal bias, certain financial interests, or prior involvement in a matter.
As reported from the court filing, the operative line is direct:
"All District Judges of the Middle District of Tennessee have recused in this matter."
The four active judges who recused are Campbell and U.S. District Judge Eli J. Richardson, both Trump appointees; U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger, appointed by former President Bill Clinton; and U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., appointed by former President Barack Obama. The district covers Nashville and surrounding counties.
Court records reported by The Gateway Pundit show an individual recusal order was already entered Oct. 2, before Campbell’s full-bench order. The same morning the broader order was filed, Smith waived formal service of the lawsuit in his own filing.
Political pressure around federal judges is not limited to this docket. Readers have watched parallel fights, including when the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against Minnesota judges over published interviews.
Blackburn argues that Smith and others involved in the investigation subpoenaed toll records tied to her legislative phone use. In the account of his position, Smith has said the records did not include the contents of calls and that his office consulted the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section about the subpoenas.
Those points sit at the center of the dispute. A sitting senator says a special counsel reached into communications connected to legislative work. The former prosecutor says the collection stopped short of call content and went through internal DOJ review. The complaint asks a federal court to rule the whole episode unlawful and to force the return or destruction of materials.
Cases that mix special-counsel power, congressional privilege, and election-era investigations rarely stay quiet. Similar institutional clashes have surfaced elsewhere, as when an Obama-appointed judge voided a Trump IRS settlement and referred counsel for bar review.
Blackburn’s filing puts Smith before a civil court as a private defendant rather than as a shielded official. That choice matters. It forces the legality of the appointment and the records grab into open litigation instead of leaving them inside the Justice Department’s own process.
With the entire Middle District bench out, the 6th Circuit’s designee will control scheduling, motions, and any ruling on the constitutional claims. The order’s silence on motive does not erase the practical result: no local active district judge will hear a Tennessee senator’s challenge to a former special counsel over phone-record subpoenas.
High-profile defendants routinely try to knock out politically charged cases at the threshold. One recent example is the effort in which Don Lemon moved to dismiss a federal indictment on grounds of political retaliation.
Blackburn has been a steady Republican voice on Justice Department nominations and oversight. That includes public claims that the Senate had the votes to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general before an August recess, another front in the same fight over who runs federal law enforcement.
Arctic Frost’s stated focus on post-2020 transfer-of-power and Electoral College certification issues supplies the backdrop for why her toll records were sought in the first place. The complaint treats that collection as a constitutional injury, not a routine investigative step. Smith’s side, as described in the reporting, stresses the limits of the records and the Public Integrity consultation.
Special-counsel and DOJ turmoil has already cost the department confidence in other Trump-era probes, including the episode in which Joseph diGenova resigned from a DOJ inquiry after losing White House confidence.
What remains open is basic process. The order gives no calendar date beyond “Monday,” no docket number in the available account, and no stated reason for the mass recusal. An outside judge still has to be named. The complaint’s requests, declarations, return or destruction of records, and nominal damages, have not been tested in court.
A full federal bench does not walk away from a senator’s case against a former special counsel unless the stakes are real. Taxpayers and lawful officeholders deserve a judge willing to examine whether phone-record subpoenas and special-counsel power stayed inside the Constitution, or ran past it.