An Alaska federal judge who abruptly resigned last week engaged in an
inappropriate sexual relationship with a former law clerk and lied
about it to an investigating judicial panel, a Ninth Circuit judicial
council said.
Joshua Kindred, a Trump appointee, who sat on the
US District Court for the District of Alaska since 2020, “engaged in
misconduct pervasive and abusive, constituted sexual harassment, and
fostered a hostile work environment that took a personal and
professional toll on multiple clerks,” the council concluded in a
30-page order released Monday.
“Judge
Kindred’s conduct was not civil, dignified, or respectful—attributes
that we expect from a federal judge—and his interactions with his law
clerks were abusive, oppressive, and inappropriate,” the order said.
Kindred submitted plans to resign as of Monday in a two-sentence resignation letter posted by the court July 5 that didn’t provide a reason for his departure.
In
a Monday release, the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit said it had
“publicly reprimanded and admonished Judge Kindred for his conduct” and
requested that he voluntarily resign. The Ninth Circuit Judicial
Council had also certified the matter to the Judicial Conference of the
United States to consider impeachment.
“In all respects, this was a
serious and sensitive matter,” said Mary Murguia, chief judge of the US
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The council’s order,
released publicly in a rare move, found that Kindred engaged in what the
council described as an “unusually close relationship” with one unnamed
law clerk, who later went on to work in the US Attorney’s Office in
Alaska.
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