All four federal district judges in the Middle District of Tennessee have recused themselves from the defamation lawsuit filed against Candace Owens by Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk. Though an explanation for the recusals was not offered in the order, it was posted days after Owens retained an attorney who previously sued the federal court and its judges.
U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell filed his notice of recusal on Wednesday, and when the document was posted publicly on Thursday, it revealed that “all District Judges and Magistrate Judges of the Middle District of Tennessee have recused in this matter.”
Because there is no judge or magistrate in the district able to hear the case, the order states the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will designate a new judge from outside the district.
Earlier this month, Owens retained the services of attorney Daniel A. Horwitz, who previously sued the court and district judges in a First Amendment challenge to a local rule for the Middle District that restricted attorneys from making certain public statements about pending cases, and was used by a magistrate to compel him to delete posts to social media related to a lawsuit against CoreCivic, which operates private prisons in Tennessee.
Though a district judge initially upheld the rule, the Sixth Circuit later dismissed the lawsuit as moot after the Middle District changed the rule. All of the Middle Tennessee judges had previously recused themselves from the matter.
At least two more Horwitz-connected cases have produced similar recusal orders, including a civil rights lawsuit originally filed against the attorney in 2025. After the judges recused themselves in that case, more than a month passed before Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals appointed District Court Judge Laurie J. Michelson of the Eastern Michigan District Court.
Recusal orders were also filed in Welty v. Dunaway, the lawsuit filed in 2024 by attorney Rachel Welty and State Representative Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville), which successfully challenged portions of Tennessee’s Underage Abortion Trafficking Act.
In the case over Tennessee’s abortion law, the record reflects recusals on October 2, 2024, and October 9, 2024, while Sutton did not reassign the case to Senior Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons until November 9, 2024. Now having practiced law for about 50 years, Smith Gibbons was first appointed to a district court by former President Ronald Reagan in 1983, and then to her circuit seat by former President George W. Bush in 2003.
A nationally recognized attorney, Horwitz previously represented Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, when a Tennessee chancellor ordered him to appear for potential contempt charges in a matter related to the Covenant School shooting. The Star had legally obtained and published details from a journal left by the killer amid still-ongoing litigation seeking to compel Metro Nashville to release the full writings.
Owens has also retained Horwitz to represent her in the lawsuit filed by the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron.
Harpole filed his defamation lawsuit against Owens and her former podcast guest, Mitch Snow, over Snow’s claim that he witnessed the security professional attend a meeting at a military installation in New Mexico one day before Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in Utah.
According to Harpole, Owens and Snow launched a conspiracy to destroy his reputation with unfounded conspiracy theories.
Snow still has yet to be served with the lawsuit, even after a federal magistrate authorized the U.S. Marshals Service to locate the defendant.
Before the recusals, Harpole asked the court to issue a preservation order requiring Owens and Snow to keep their electronic devices and messages.
As the civil litigation continues in Tennessee, on Friday, a Utah state court held the fourth day of a preliminary hearing for the case against Tyler Robinson, who is charged with murdering Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025.
Evidence presented by prosecutors so far has included DNA they say connects Robinson to the murder weapon, an interview with Robinson’s former boyfriend, who said security camera footage from the day of the shooting “definitely” looked like Robinson, and dozens of text messages in which Robinson appeared to confess to killing Kirk.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Candace Owens” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
