A former U.S. district judge in Alaska, Joshua Kindred, resigned after allegedly creating a hostile environment for his law clerks and having an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of them, according to a misconduct order filed with the Judicial Council for the Ninth Circuit.
In a 30-page judicial misconduct order, filed in May and made public on July 8, the council concluded that then-Judge Kindred engaged in misconduct and had “an inappropriately sexualized relationship with one of his law clerks both during her clerkship and after she became an Assistant United States Attorney.”
A probe was initiated after Chief Circuit Judge Mary H. Murguia received a complaint against Judge Kindred in 2022. Judge Kindred denied the allegations, but Judge Murguia determined there were “reasonably disputed issues” that required a Special Committee investigation.
The order stated that Judge Kindred lied to Judge Murguia, the council, and investigators by claiming that he “never had any sexual contact with [the law clerk].”
However, when asked under oath during the Judicial Council meeting on April 5 he admitted that he had “deliberately lied” to the Special Committee, according to the order.
“Looking at the totality of the chambers environment over a span of approximately two and a half years, we conclude that Judge Kindred’s misconduct was pervasive and abusive, constituted sexual harassment, and fostered a hostile work environment that took a personal and professional toll on multiple clerks,” the order reads.
In light of these findings, the council concluded that Judge Kindred “engaged in conduct that might constitute one or more grounds for impeachment under Article II of the Constitution.”
According to the order, the findings were based on a review of documents from various witnesses, including text messages exchanged between Judge Kindred and his law clerks, as well as interviews with 21 individuals.
“These text messages document the nature of Judge Kindred’s inappropriate interactions with his law clerks as these comments lacked any connection to the clerks’ legitimate job duties and were often sexual in nature,” it stated.
One of the clerks reported that Judge Kindred told her that an assistant United States attorney had sent him nude photographs. He later expressed insecurity about sharing such information, asking, “But you don’t think I suck? Do I give off a desperate for attention vibe?”
Judge Kindred’s Response to Investigation
In his nine-page written response to the Special Committee report, Mr. Kindred acknowledged that he had “failed to exercise appropriate boundaries and crossed lines I should not have crossed.”“Rather, I would hope that offering a more detailed description of the time period will establish that those relationships did not develop due to any sinister or illicit intent,” he stated.
Regarding the findings about his inappropriate relationship with the law clerk, he said, “I was not the aggressor. I was not overbearing. I was honest with [the law clerk] as to the difficult place I was in. I wish that I would have been stronger and that I would have handled myself in a more respectable manner.”
Judge Kindred did not provide a public comment on the misconduct allegations. The Epoch Times has contacted the U.S. District Court of Alaska for comment but has not heard back as of publication time.
Judge Kindred was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2019 to serve as a jurist for the District of Alaska. He was confirmed 54–41 in the Senate in February 2020.
With the judge’s vacancy, it means that President Joe Biden has the chance to nominate a jurist to the U.S. District Court of Alaska.
