Sean Hannity suggested on his radio show Thursday that Hawaiian Federal Judge Derrick Watson blocked Trump’s latest Muslim travel ban because he smoked pot and used cocaine with President Obama. Hannity even suggested that he should recuse himself because of it:
“By the way, this judge who issued the travel ban ruling is an Obama law school classmate. Maybe he should have recused himself from the case. Just a maybe. Were they best friends in Hawaii, were they part of the Choom Gang, smoking pot and hanging out?”
Here are Hannity’s comments (story continues after video):
The “Choom Gang” was the self-applied nickname of Obama’s group of Hawaiian school friends, according to biographer David Maraniss. Though, there is no evidence that Judge Watson was part of Obama’s circle of close friends.
The allegation that Judge Derrick Watson has colluded with President Obama on overturning Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban has been making the rounds on right-wing conspiracy forums. Tracking the former President’s itinerary as he visited Hawaii, internet sleuths concluded that Obama was at one point within a 30-minute drive of the courthouse where Judge Watson presides. Since both Obama and Watson graduated from Harvard law in the same year, some concluded that it must have meant that President Obama was behind Watson’s ruling.
On Wednesday, Watson ruled that President Trump’s 2nd version of his travel ban likely violates the First Amendment. His ruling said,
“Any reasonable, objective observer would conclude […] that the stated secular purpose of the Executive Order is, at the very least, secondary to a religious objective of temporarily suspending the entry of Muslims.”
A separate Judge in Maryland also ruled on Thursday that the ban was likely not Constitutional.
Trump has vowed to take this case to the Supreme Court.
