U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the District of Columbia will now oversee House Judiciary Democrats' lawsuit seeking ex-White House counsel Don McGahn's public testimony.

Jackson, who was confirmed to the bench in 2013 during the Obama administration, was randomly assigned the case Wednesday. She had not yet overseen any of the high-profile legal fights between House Democrats and the Trump administration, nor anything related to the former special counsel Robert Mueller III's probe.

Jackson was among the candidates reviewed by the White House in 2016 to potentially fill late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

And she presided over the 2018 criminal case of ex-Senate Intelligence Committee staffer Jim Wolfe, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his dealings with the media. Jackson sentenced Wolfe to two months in prison, significantly less time than the two years sought by federal prosecutors.

The House lawsuit against McGahn was initially assigned to Chief Judge Beryl Howell, as House general counsel Douglas Letter sought to have the case related to Democrats' petition to obtain grand jury materials related to the Mueller report.

But Howell rejected that request in an order earlier Wednesday, finding that the legal issues and facts of the cases "are so far apart on the core issues for decision that judicial efficiency is not a reason for relation."

"The potential for manipulation of the ordinary rule of random assignment would be particularly acute if the House Judiciary Committee could relate any matter arising from its ongoing investigation to a single judge on this court, irrespective of the particularities of each case," Howell wrote.

The Judiciary Democrats had argued that Howell should oversee both cases because they will each play a role in determining whether they should start formal impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

But Department of Justice attorneys, in a filing made on behalf of McGahn on Tuesday, suggested that the lawmakers were attempting to judge shop.

"Allowing plaintiffs to relate subsequent cases to a matter that is itself not randomly assigned would further exacerbate the potential for mischief in the committee's inversion of the test for relatedness," the Tuesday filing said.

"And that potential will be especially glaring here, where the committee will apparently take the position that all of the many suits it might attempt to file as part of its so-called 'impeachment investigation' are related to its original application for Grand Jury material."

This is the second time in a month that a D.C. federal judge has ordered a case reassigned amid concerns of judicial shopping. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia stepped away from Trump's lawsuit seeking to block House Democrats from obtaining his New York tax returns after the president's attorneys initially asked that it be related to the lawsuit over Trump's federal tax returns in McFadden's court.

The House Judiciary Democrats are seeking a court order to compel McGahn, who is now at Jones Day, to testify publicly before their committee, characterizing him as a crucial witness as they make a decision on impeachment proceedings.

"The Judiciary Committee is now determining whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the President based on the obstructive conduct described by the Special Counsel," the lawsuit, filed in D.C. District Court last week, reads. "But it cannot fulfill this most solemn constitutional responsibility without hearing testimony from a crucial witness to these events: former White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II."

McGahn was subpoenaed by the committee earlier this year, but defied the request at the direction of the White House. Trump officials claim that McGahn is "immune" from revealing details of his conversations and actions at the White House.

Democrats disagree, pointing to his several interviews with Mueller that detailed his interactions with Trump officials, including the president, and the release of those interviews' contents in Mueller's report.

Democrats say McGahn is one of the only first-hand witnesses to potential acts of obstruction of justice by Trump, including an effort to fire Mueller and then create a false record to hide the attempted firing. Mueller declined to make a charging decision on whether the president obstructed justice, and Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said, after reviewing Mueller's report, that they believed there was insufficient evidence to bring such a charge.

Read more:

McGahn Now Must Face Judge After Rebuffing Democrats' Subpoena

Don McGahn Said Trump Was 'Testing His Mettle' Over Possibly Firing Mueller

Judge Carl Nichols Is Assigned to Trump's Bid to Keep NY Tax Returns Secret

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