Controversial Trump judicial nominee in peril of Senate defeat

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Nov. 28, 2018 / 12:04 AM GMT

By Leigh Ann Caldwell and Frank Thorp V

WASHINGTON — A controversial judicial nominee is in danger of being derailed in the U.S. Senate because of objections over his past work defending state laws viewed as discriminatory and senate leadership’s refusal to vote on legislation aimed at protecting special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Thomas Farr, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, has come under fire because of his work on cases that Democrats say have disenfranchised African Americans from voting. That issue has at least one GOP senator, Tim Scott of South Carolina, undecided on whether to support Farr’s confirmation.

When asked on Monday if he would support Farr, Scott said,”that’s a good question.”

Another Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is blocking all judicial nominees, including Farr’s, until GOP leaders agree to hold a vote on a bill to put up guardrails against any threat of Trump firing Mueller.

“I was uncomfortably moving ahead (with Farr’s nomination) in October because people raising some other issues, so it was delayed until this month,” Flake said, telling reporters he would vote no “if we haven’t voted on the special counsel bill.”

Senate Democrats are united in opposition and if two Republicans join them to vote against Farr, his nomination would be defeated.

Thomas Farr is an employment lawyer at Ogletree and Deakins in Raleigh, where he has been the lead counsel defending clients against racial discrimination and workplace violation complaints.

Democrats say that he was instrumental in keeping minorities from voting, including working to defend North Carolina’s restrictive voter identification law. They also point to his legal work on the campaign of former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who was investigated for intimidating black voters in 1990.

“Mr. Farr was chief cook and bottle washer for the state that probably did more to prevent people, particularly African Americans, from voting than any other state,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said. “This is despicable. Absolutely despicable.”

Sen. Scott has helped defeat a Trump judicial nominee in the past for racially insensitive writings, raising objections about Ryan Bounds, a nominee for the ninth circuit. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sided with Scott and came out in opposition to Bounds, resulting in the nomination being pulled just moments before the final vote was set to take place.

Rubio’s spokeswoman, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said the senator would support Farr in this vote. “The Senator sees no reason not to support his nomination, so he’ll be a yes,” she said.

The NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus oppose the nomination and held a protest outside a Senate hearing room last January when the committee advanced his nomination on a party-line vote.

Two African American gubernatorial candidates, Stacey Abrams of Georgia and Andrew Gillum of Florida, released a joint statement of opposition to Farr on Tuesday. “When it comes to the trifecta of voter disenfranchisement — voter suppression, racial gerrymandering, and restriction of voting rights — Thomas Farr is, sadly, one of the most experienced election lawyers in the country,” they wrote.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said he will support Farr’s nomination after reviewing his work “a lot.”

“This is an attorney doing his job working for different clients,” Lankford said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who sometimes bucks her party, said she’d support him, too, citing his rating of “well qualified” with the American Bar Association.

Marianna Sotomayor contributed.