Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is criticizing the Judicial Conference for referring a former federal judge to the House for impeachment.
The Kentucky Republican said Tuesday that the Judicial Conference, in an attempt to take a hard line against workplace misconduct, “referred a private citizen for impeachment” last week.
Former U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred was confirmed to the District of Alaska in 2020 after being appointed by former President Donald Trump. He stepped down in July after being confronted with evidence he had a sexual relationship with a clerk who went on to become a U.S. attorney and had exchanged sexually themed text messages with other lawyers who had cases pending before him.
“Without getting into the merits of the allegations against the former judge — other than to note that they caused him to resign in disgrace — this was a remarkable action by the [judicial] bureaucracy,” Mr. McConnell said.
“They are surely aware that whether or not you can impeach a former official is hotly disputed. But they referred it anyway,” he said. “In other words, while trying to make a point about one political issue — workplace misconduct in the judiciary — they ended up making a point about another one — the impeachment of former officials. And for what? Forty sitting senators have already said that you can’t do this as a matter of constitutional law, thereby making his conviction all but impossible.”
Mr. McConnell was referring to Mr. Trump’s second impeachment in February 2021 over the riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The House impeached Mr. Trump on charges of inciting an insurrection days before President Biden’s inauguration.
The Senate trial began in February 2021, after Mr. Trump had left the White House.
During the trial, Mr. McConnell said Mr. Trump was responsible for the riot, but the Senate GOP leader also said he didn’t believe a former president should be impeached.
“There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day,” Mr. McConnell said at the time.
The Senate voted 57-43 to convict Mr. Trump, but the result fell three votes short below the two-thirds requirement, so he was ultimately acquitted.
The Judicial Conference, which held a press conference Tuesday, declined to comment on the referral of Judge Kindred other than to point to its letter to the House and findings by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“There is nothing I can really add on former Judge Kindred,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told reporters Tuesday.
It appears the House has not yet made the letter public, and it is unclear if House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, will do so.
It’s also unclear if the House will move forward with the impeachment.
Mr. Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Judicial Council of the 9th Circuit this summer referred Judge Kindred’s complaint to the Judicial Conference for review. The council recommended a public reprimand and requested the judge voluntarily resign. He formally resigned on July 8.
The 9th Circuit report found that the former judge “engaged in misconduct by creating a hostile work environment for his law clerks and by having an inappropriately sexualized relationship with one of his law clerks both during her clerkship and after she became an Assistant United States Attorney. The former law clerk did not appear on any case before Judge Kindred while she was employed as an Assistant United States Attorney.”
It is against the rules for judges to sit on any case in which there could be a potential conflict of interest.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.