2 Trump picks for judge will not be confirmed
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Republican said Wednesday that two of President Donald Trump’s nominees for open seats on the federal bench will not be confirmed, just a day after urging the White House to “reconsider” them.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that based on his discussions with the White House, the nominations of Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley would not move forward through the confirmation process. The decision comes after reports that both nominees made public comments celebrating groups or policies that were discriminatory.
The decision is a significant interruption of the Trump administration’s plans to have the Senate swiftly confirm its judicial nominees, often over the objections of Democrats complaining that certain picks are too biased or too inexperienced for the federal bench.
Mateer was nominated to serve as a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas, but the committee never received his paperwork, according to a spokesman for Grassley. Talley was nominated for a federal district court seat in Alabama, and has been awaiting confirmation from the full Senate, after the committee approved his nomination on a partyline vote last month. When asked Wednesday if the White House would withdraw Talley’s nomination, Grassley said “of course they will.”
Democrats objected to Talley’s nomination early on, citing the fact that he had never worked as a judge as well as the American Bar Association’s finding that he was “not qualified” for the federal bench.
Talley — who writes horror books and has participated in ghost-hunting activities — has practiced law for three years and has never tried a case.
Republicans have defended Talley, with some accusing the ABA of a liberal bias. But in the time since the committee voted on his nomination, reports have identified him as the author of an online comment in 2011 defending “the first KKK.”
Past comments by Mateer have also been brought into the spotlight. According to other reports, in 2015 he said he believed transgender children were “Satan’s spawn” and defended a judge’s right to support certain kinds of discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation.
Grassley said that neither nominee had disclosed these comments during their vetting processes. He also complained Tuesday that Talley had not disclosed to the committee during his interview that he is married to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff for White House counsel Don McGahn.
Grassley stopped short Wednesday of condemning the White House’s vetting process, calling it “very, very thorough already.”
“But I don’t know how you can vet, be absolutely 100 percent sure, of everybody — particularly in the social networking world that we have,” Grassley added. “I don’t know how you get everything off the social network; I don’t know how you get it.”
But high-ranking Senate Democrats said the fouled up nominations were a sign the Trump administration needed to make changes to its judicial selection process. “I hope they look at their process and be more discriminating in how they select nominees,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Calif., the panel’s ranking Democrat.
Meanwhile, the Senate approved Don Willett, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Willett — the 11th circuit court judge to be confirmed this year — was confirmed Wednesday on a 50-47 vote.
President Barack Obama had three circuit judges approved in his first year in office.
Willett was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in 2005 and then elected to that position in 2006 and 2012. Prior to joining the court, Willett served as deputy attorney general in Texas.
Democrats opposing Willett said he had a conservative agenda that would be reflected in his decisions.