Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is pushing for an ethics investigation into the judge who made rulings in cases linked to former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 protesters.

Stefanik is alleging that U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who is currently presiding over Trump ally Rudy Giuliani’s defamation trial, engaged in “judicial misconduct” during a speech the judge gave last month. According to Stefanik, the speech was a “highly inappropriate political speech.”

During an award acceptance speech at the Women’s White Collar Defense Association, Howell had said the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol happened because of “big lies.”

Quoting historian Heather Cox Richardson’s book “Democracy Awakening” that “big lies are springboards for authoritarians,” Howell voiced concerns about what she called “a very surprising and downright troubling moment in this country when the very importance of facts is dismissed, or ignored.”

She did not outrightly mention Trump’s name. However, Stefanik accused the judge of suggesting that the reelection of Trump “will lead to fascism in America.”

“As outlined in detail below, Judge Howell’s partisan speech is obviously highly inappropriate election interference by a federal judge that undermines the public’s trust in our courts. Moreover, the public display of the cozy personal relationships between Judge Howell and her partisan friends who appear before her undermines public trust in judicial independence,” the no. 3 House Republican stated in the letter in which she made her call for an ethics probe into the Washington, D.C., judge.

Stefanik also highlighted Howell’s personal relationships with Obama-era Attorney General Loretta Lynch and current Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, both of whom were present at the award event. According to the lawmaker, Howell “ inappropriately allowed a public display of her cozy personal relationships with her partisan friends who appear before her, including the Biden Deputy Attorney General who supervises the January 6 criminal prosecutions.”

Stefanik took issue with Lynch’s praising of Howell for how she handled the Jan. 6 protest, among other things.

“It’s particularly shocking to hear the former Attorney General of the United States praise a sitting federal judge for her handling of the grand-jury proceedings on pending federal criminal charges against a defendant (President Trump), the pending criminal cases against his January 6 supporters, and even make the legal conclusion that an ‘insurrection’ occurred on January 6 — despite the fact even the over-the-top Biden Special Counsel Jack Smith never brought such charges against any January 6 defendant,” Stefanik’s letter read.

The New York Republican also took issue with Howell’s mention of Monaco during her speech, in which she said, “I’ve been in awe of how you remain a model of calm and grace when carrying enormous responsibility for the safety of so many.”

Now, Stefanik says, “Judge Howell’s 16 minutes of substantive remarks had little to do with women representing white-collar criminal defendants — and they were hardly apolitical, let alone politically neutral.”