WH Will Not Move Forward With Judicial Nominee Deemed ‘Not Qualified’

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Brett J. Talley, a lawyer unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, will not move forward in the nomination process for a lifetime federal district judgeship, TPM confirmed on Wednesday.

TPM also confirmed that Talley offered to withdraw his nomination.

Talley has no trial experience and was only the fourth nominee since 1989 to be rated “not qualified” by the ABA. President Donald Trump nevertheless nominated Talley in September as his pick for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

The New York Times reported in November that Talley did not disclose his marriage to Ann Donaldson, top White House lawyer Don McGahn’s chief of staff, during his nomination process before the Senate.

BuzzFeed News reported, also in November, that Talley also failed to disclose thousands of posts he appeared to have written for TideFans.com, a University of Alabama sports fan website, on political subjects including immigration and gun control.

Talley appeared to go by the username “BamainBoston,” and identified himself in 2014 in a post titled “Washington Post Did A Feature On Me” with a link to a report that dubbed him “the ghost hunter and horror novelist who writes Sen. Rob Portman’s speeches.” (Talley did disclose to the Senate that he was part of The Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group in 2009–10.)

In one post about gun control in December 2012, titled “Aftermath of Connecticut Shooting” and written three days after a gunman killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Talley said, “My solution would be to stop being a society of pansies and man up.”

In another post on the same fan website, surfaced by Slate, Talley appeared to defend “the first KKK” which he incorrectly claimed “was entirely different than the KKK of the early 19th Century.”

Notable Replies

  1. It took them 3 months to figure out that a guy deemed “not qualified” by the ABA is, well, not qualified to be a federal just. And that came only after it was revealed that he hadn’t bothered to note on his disclosure forms that his wife works for the White House counsel.

    I’d say that this is par for the course in this maladminstration, except that withdrawing the nomination is actually a major advance for these highbinders.

  2. Hmmmm…this seems suspicious.
    I bet he was porking Omarosa!

  3. But we already have a POTUS deemed “Not Qualified” by everyone but Russia, Racists, and the Koch Bros, that the country is not moving forward with.

  4. I guess Trump and the Gang (didn’t they sing “Celebration”?) can’t cypher as good a Jethro when he’s out by the cement pond with Ellie Mae and her critters.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

104 more replies

Participants

Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for marby Avatar for sysprog Avatar for micaiah Avatar for epicurus Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for losamigos Avatar for carlosfiance Avatar for sniffit Avatar for thebigragu Avatar for lastroth Avatar for mike_in_houston Avatar for sanni Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for zd123 Avatar for tena Avatar for dommyluc Avatar for caltg Avatar for rickjones Avatar for jakebarnes Avatar for redhand Avatar for gromilini Avatar for justruss Avatar for bloomingpeonie

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: