House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, (D-N.Y.) was just dealt a set back in his partisan quest to impeach President Donald Trump.

A D.C. federal judge Wednesday shot down an attempt to link a subpoena for former White House counsel Don McGahn to a separate request to release secret grand jury information from the Russia investigation, according to Fox News.

The ploy was an attempt to “game the system,” according to the Justice Department.

In effect, Nadler and his crew of Democrats tried to connect the McGahn case to the grand jury case on the basis that they’re both part of their investigation of President Trump, Fox News reported.

“[A]t first blush, the House Judiciary Committee’s view that the related case rule applies is understandable,” wrote D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell, who rejected the bid. “Nonetheless, closer examination demonstrates that these connections between the two cases are too superficial and attenuated for the instant McGahn Subpoena Case to qualify[.]”

As the network explained, cases are generally assigned to judges randomly to prevent people from “shopping” for a judge they prefer — Judge Howell is currently assigned to the grand jury information case.

The Justice Department argued in court there was no common event or transaction drawing the two cases together.

More from Fox News:

The House Judiciary Committee claimed that the cases are related because they both tie into what they are now calling an “impeachment investigation” of Trump. Their complaint against McGahn calls him the “most important witness, other than the President, to the key events that are the focus of the Judiciary Committee’s investigation” into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The DOJ, however, argued that the term “related” refers to cases that have “common issues of fact” or stem from a “common event or transaction.” They claimed the committee “gets it backwards” because they are “trying to relate completely unrelated cases simply because it filed them in service of its overarching desire to bring various matters together in its investigation of the President.”

As a result of Wednesday’s ruling, the McGahn case will now be transferred to the Calendar and Case Management Committee to be randomly reassigned.

The claim by Democrats on the panel of there being an “impeachment investigation” is consistent with Nadler’s claim last week that “formal impeachment proceedings” were underway.

‘This IS formal impeachment proceedings’: Nadler plays impressive word games https://t.co/4XMTV3f0xi — Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) August 9, 2019

Even though he admitted that the committee had not drafted articles of impeachment.

“As the investigation proceeds, we may want to draft our own articles of impeachment that may more closely fit the evidence,” he said. “We’ll see.”

Rep. Doug Collins, (R-Ga.,) ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said an impeachment investigation was impossible because the House never approved such an investigation.

This prompted Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s district director, to tell the New York Daily News, “Why are you listening to Collins? Collins doesn’t know sh*t.”

The House Judiciary Committee would have to draft articles of impeachment, sending them to the full House for a floor vote. If successful, the Senate effectively holds trial to pass judgement.