Trump-appointed Alaska judge resigns after sexual misconduct investigation | Law (US)

An Alaska federal judge who abruptly resigned last week subjected his staff to a hostile work environment and had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a legal assistant, a U.S. judicial panel said Monday.

The Ninth Circuit Judicial Council publicly reprimanded and admonished U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred, a Donald Trump White House appointee who on Wednesday submitted his resignation from his lifetime appointment after joining the bench in 2020.

In a May 23 order made public Monday, the council said it had asked for his resignation while referring his case to the federal judiciary’s top decision-making body so it could certify the case to Congress, which could then consider pursuing a rare impeachment proceeding against a federal judge.

“The judiciary is charged with governing itself and, in doing so, must demand the highest standards of integrity and impartiality from its federal judges,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Mary Murguia said in a statement.

Kindred, 46, did not respond to requests for comment. He told the board that his “great sin here was the fact that during this period I treated my legal assistants as friends rather than employees,” according to the nine-member panel’s 30-page order.

The order says an investigation found Kindred created a hostile work environment for his employees by frequently using inappropriate language and discussing with them his sex life, their relationships and his “derogatory” views toward co-workers and public figures.

A commission of inquiry found that Kindred had an “unusually close relationship” with one of the clerks – and that a week after she started working in a prosecutor’s office, Kindred had invited her out for a drink, kissed her and grabbed her buttocks.

Days later, the clerk said the judge invited her to an apartment where he was staying, asked her to lie on a bed with him and performed oral sex on her, the committee found.

The judicial council said Kindred later lied to the investigating committee by denying having a sexual relationship with the clerk.