A federal judge has rejected a request from prosecutors for a warrant to search the phone of a woman charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, on the grounds that prosecutors went to him with the request instead of to the same judge that had earlier denied an application for the warrant.
That choice amounted to the government “judge shopping,” or an attempt to “manipulate the judicial system to find a judge likely to rule in its favor,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey, who is based in Washington, said in his May 14 denial of the request.
