Trump said liberal Supreme Court justices should recuse themselves from cases involving him, dramatically escalating his attacks on the judiciary

Associated Press

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he boards Air Force One in Maryland on February 18, 2020.

• President Donald Trump in a tweet on Tuesday said that two liberal justices on the Supreme Court should recuse themselves from cases involving him.
• "Both should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters!" tweeted the president, of Justice Rita Sotomayor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Trump has in recent weeks launched a series of attacks on a judge presiding over the case of former adviser Roger Stone, sparking warnings the president is seeking to politicize the justice system.
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President Donald Trump has stepped up his fight with the judiciary, suggesting in a tweet Tuesday that two liberal justices on the Supreme Court should recuse themslves from cases involving him.

In the tweet from India, where he is on a state visit, Trump quoted Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who claimed that Supreme Court Justice Rita Sotomayor had accused justices appointed by the Trump administration of pro-Trump bias.

"'Sotomayor accuses GOP appointed Justices of being biased in favor of Trump,'" Trump tweeted, quoting the host, then added in his own words: "This is a terrible thing to say. Trying to 'shame' some into voting her way? She never criticized Justice Ginsberg when she called me a 'faker'. Both should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters!"

"While 'elections have consequences,'" he added, "I only ask for fairness, especially when it comes to decisions made by the United States Supreme Court!"

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, left, holds up her hands as she and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor arrive to applause for a panel discussion celebrating Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to be a Supreme Court Justice, Wednesday Sept. 25, 2019, at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Ingraham, in the attack that spurred Trump, appeared to be referring to Friday's dissent by Sotomayor after a Supreme Court ruling.

She objected to the decision, which enabled the Trump administration to ban migrants deemed likely to incur a "public charge," or become dependent on government welfare.

Sotomayor said the the court "has been all too quick" to grant the government's requests, but "make no mistake: Such a shift in the Court's own behavior comes at a cost."

In her dissent, though she did not claim that Trump-appointed judges were biased in favor of the president, she criticized the court for acceding to goverment requests to fast-track cases such as Friday's and hear them before lower appeals courts had the chance to make a ruling.

Trump's attack on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg referenced crticisim she made about Trump before his election in 2016, in which she told the New York Times that she was concerned at the prospect of him winning.

"I can't imagine what this place would be - I can't imagine what the country would be - with Donald Trump as our president," she said.

She has since apologised for the remark.

The tweet comes only days after Trump launched a series of attacks on the judge presiding in the case of his former adviser Roger Stone, and interfered with the case in a bid to secure him a lower sentence.

The moves have sparked warnings from former Justice Department officials that Trump is seeking to tear down the barriers separating the justice department from the White House in a bid to turn the justice system into a political weapon.

Attorney General William Barr is taking a personal role in several cases involving Trump, but also claimed in an ABC interview earlier this month that the president's public attempts to interfere in the justice system risk making his job untenable.

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"Sotomayor accuses GOP appointed Justices of being biased in favor of Trump." @IngrahamAngle @FoxNews This is a terrible thing to say. Trying to "shame" some into voting her way? She never criticized Justice Ginsberg when she called me a "faker". Both should recuse themselves..

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2020

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