Ethics-slap filing after CNN tirade
A key ally of Donald Trump filed a complaint Tuesday against a district judge out of Washington, DC, who appeared on CNN last week and took jabs at the former president.
US District Judge Reggie Walton went on the cable news network to discuss Trump’s attacks on the judge overseeing his “hush money” case out of Manhattan and was openly critical of the 45th president.
Mike Davis, the founder of the Article III Project, an advocacy group that pushes for the nominations of conservative judges, ripped Walton’s CNN appearance as “judicial misconduct.”
“We are seeing a dangerous pattern in which DC federal judges, like . . . Reggie Walton have convinced themselves they have a duty — unbounded by the judicial canons — to make extrajudicial pronouncements about President Trump,” Davis wrote in a 13-page complaint.
Davis’ complaint was addressed to Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
He told The Post that his goal is for Walton to get reprimanded and to “send a very clear message” to other judges, especially in DC, that they “cannot take off their political robes and climb into the political arena.”
Davis highlighted a provision in the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, stipulating that judges have an obligation not to “denigrate public confidence in the judiciary’s integrity.”
“It is much worse when a different judge — especially a sitting federal judge —
thinks it is his job to moonlight as a CNN commentator on a pending criminal case in another judge’s court,” Davis added.
During his appearance on CNN last Thursday, Walton opined on Trump’s Truth Social screed against Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, whose daughter Loren Merchan helms Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm.
‘Compromised’
At the time, Trump had made posts alleging that Judge Merchan suffered from “acute Trump derangement syndrome” and was “totally compromised.”
“Well, it’s very disconcerting to have someone making comments about a judge, and it’s particularly problematic when those comments are in the form of a threat, especially if they are directed at one’s family,” Walton told CNN.
Walton further recalled how both he and his daughter had been threatened in the past and warned about the hurdles that can pose to upholding the rule of law.
Davis disputed Walton’s suggestion that Trump
threatened Merchan, arguing that he merely “articulated the reason why he believes he will not receive a fair trial” under him.
“A reasonable person cannot read President Trump’s posts and draw the conclusion that he made any such threat,” Davis argued. “President Trump, for example, did not dox the home addresses of the judge and his adult daughter. Nor did President Trump encourage illegal protests outside of their homes.”
In addition to Walton’s CNN appearance, the DCbased judge has previously called Trump a “charlatan,” saying, “I don’t think he cares about democracy, only power” and questioned whether Trump would accept defeat.
“I made the comments I made in the context of the sentencing I’ve imposed because I’m hoping what I say to the individuals I’m sentencing will resonate,” Walton, who has overseen a handful of Capitol riot cases, explained on CNN last Thursday.
Davis warned The Post that by appearing on CNN, Walton is creating what could “quickly become a very dangerous, slippery slope where you can do this to politically disfavored defendants.”