Kindred whistleblower claims retaliation by U.S. attorney
The fallout from the judicial scandal related to former Judge Josh Kindred continues to spread.
Bloomberg Law reports that the former law clerk who complained about Kindred’s behavior alleges that the U.S. attorney’s office denied her a job because of the ruckus that ensued. She said her boss at the prosecutor’s office informed her about her failure to get a job via an all-staff e-mail last September.
“It was one of the hardest days of my life,” the whistleblower said. “And by then, I had seen some stuff. It was cruel.”
“I have to live with this forever,” said the woman, whom Bloomberg Law isn’t naming since she’s a survivor of sexual misconduct. “I have to live with being sexually assaulted by someone that was supposed to be my mentor. And now I have to live with this. I have to live with being ousted from my dream job and ousted from my home. And I just hope that talking about it has some impact on others.”
Bloomberg said she has filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.
“In her complaint, the whistleblower also claimed her request to be detailed to another office within the Justice Department was initially denied in November 2022, despite telling the U.S. attorney’s top deputy, Kathryn Vogel, that she was afraid of Kindred and didn’t want to work in the same building as him,” the news agency said.
Vogel and U.S. Attorney Lane Tucker both denied that the request was at first denied, Bloomberg said. After the request was approved, the clerk spent seven months working in Washington, D.C.
“According to the OSC complaint, the whistleblower told Vogel in fall 2022 that the judge discussed receiving nude photographs from a more senior attorney in the office, Karen Vandergaw. The ex-clerk said she was interviewed about the issue by OPR in March 2023, but the status of that investigation is unknown.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski called for an investigation by the Justice Department.
“The facts alleged in this article are deeply disturbing. It is bad enough that the actions of Josh Kindred severely undermined the public’s faith in the district court, but if the United States Attorney’s Office retaliated against the victim of those actions as alleged, that goes beyond the pale,” she said on X.
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