'You Should Be Very Concerned...': Marsha Blackburn Warns Durbin, Dems About Pending Judicial Nom

6 months ago

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) slammed Kevin Ritz, the nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit.

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Transcript

00:00Gretchen Carlson for being here today and inspiring a lot of the efforts.

00:04Speaking of ageless, I want to thank Senator Grassley for helping me get this

00:12thing moving and he's had a midlife crisis. He's gonna solve it right here in

00:18front of us and we're gonna get this bill over the line.

00:22That is regular order for sure. We turn to the votes on nominations. The first is

00:29Kevin Ritz, nominated to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. I'd like to

00:33briefly comment on his nomination. During the hearing, members of the committee

00:37questioned him about a complaint submitted to the Department of Justice

00:41Office of Professional Responsibility in connection with his representation of a

00:45case. Mr. Ritz has stated that he was not aware of the complaint, a fact he

00:50reiterated under repeated questioning by members of the committee. One member

00:55even went so far as to accuse Mr. Ritz of lying to the committee. As I mentioned

01:00yesterday, that would be a federal crime when you're under oath. No evidence was

01:04produced to suggest he was lying. In fact, this accusation was untrue, unfounded, and

01:09wholly inappropriate. Here are the facts as Mr. Ritz explained at the hearing and

01:14as we followed up to find it true. He did not receive notice from the Office of

01:19Professional Responsibility regarding any letter of complaint. This is

01:25presumably because OPR determined the complaint was meritless and dismissed

01:29it. As OPR itself says on its website, and I quote, most complaints received by

01:35OPR are determined not to warrant further review because, for example, the

01:39complaint on its face appears to be without merit or is unsupported by any

01:44evidence. This is the most important sentence. In such cases, OPR will close the

01:49matter without informing the subject attorney of the complaint. Notably, the

01:54defense attorney represented to the court during the case in question that

01:58she was not accusing Mr. Ritz of any misconduct. In fact, no allegations of

02:03misconduct against Mr. Ritz were ever substantiated. The judge in this case

02:08stated, and I quote, the record does not reflect the determination by the court

02:12adverse in any way to Mr. Ritz. I need that to be absolutely clear, the judge

02:19said. Given these facts, the treatment of Mr. Ritz by some members of the

02:23committee was disappointing. His nomination to be U.S. attorney was

02:26voice-voted out of this committee in 2022. Notably, he enjoyed the strong

02:31support of his home state senators at the time. Does anyone seek recognition to

02:35speak on Mr. Ritz's nomination? Mr. Chairman. Ms. Blackburn. Senator Blackburn. Thank you, and I'm

02:40not going to take up the committee's time today to rehash the White House's

02:45history of not working with Senator Hagerty and I on these judicial nominees,

02:51but I do want to say this. The White House rushed through a backroom deal to

02:57put Kevin Ritz in this seat, and by so doing, they have nominated a man whose

03:03lack of professional ethics unquestionably disqualifies him from

03:10federal judicial service. And for all of my colleagues on the other side of the

03:15aisle who care about indigent criminal defendants, who care about preserving

03:21criminal defendants' constitutional rights, and who care about supporting our

03:27federal public defenders, you should be very concerned by the prospect of Mr.

03:33Ritz serving as a federal judge. I know that my Democratic colleagues believe in

03:39the American ideal that every individual accused of a crime is entitled to due

03:46process of the law, but that's not how Kevin Ritz operates as a prosecutor. Mr.

03:54Ritz uses bait-and-switch tactics to trick indigent criminal defendants into

04:01accepting plea deals they didn't agree to. He leaves his written plea agreements

04:06intentionally vague, lures indigent criminal defendants and public defenders

04:11into an oral agreement, and then pulls the rug out from under them in court. And

04:17when a female defense attorney finally called Mr. Ritz out on his unethical

04:24conduct, he tried to defame and discredit her. In fact, Mr. Ritz was removed from

04:31that case because of his unethical behavior. The prosecutor who replaced him

04:38went so far as to say, on the record, that the allegations of Mr. Ritz's

04:43professional conduct, and I quote, are serious and are taken so seriously by

04:49our office that Mr. Ritz will be taken off the case, end quote. And this wasn't

04:56just one case. Mr. Ritz's reputation for unethical behavior is well known across

05:04the Tennessee bar. Just ask Steven Shankman, the former federal public

05:10defender for the Western District of Tennessee. Mr. Ritz's ethical misdeeds are

05:16so well known that when Mr. Shankman first heard reports of a prosecutor

05:22behaving unethically, he knew it had to be Kevin Ritz. In an email warning other

05:29defense attorneys about Mr. Ritz, Mr. Shankman said, and I quote, this is not

05:35the first, second, third, or whatever occasion that this sort of thing has

05:40occurred, but everyone should be aware of this unfortunate pattern of behavior. You

05:46should be aware, your clients should be aware, and you should proceed with

05:52extreme caution, end quote. You should proceed with extreme caution. I'd like my

06:00colleagues across the aisle to think about that one. Is that how you want

06:05indigent criminal defendants and public defenders to feel when they enter an

06:13American courtroom and Mr. Ritz is the presiding judge? I would hope you do

06:21not want that. Mr. Ritz has a history, unfortunately, of lying to the federal

06:30courts, lying to federal public defenders, and lying to indigent criminal

06:35defendants, and during his confirmation hearing, Mr. Ritz lied to the committee.

06:40Mr. Chairman, I do not believe that Mr. Ritz has the judgment or professional

06:46ethics to be a federal judge. It is deeply, deeply disappointing to me. We had

06:54asked to work with the White House. We know what has transpired here, and I hope

06:59my colleagues across the aisle who are concerned about unethical federal

07:05prosecutors trampling on defendants' constitutional rights will join me in

07:11opposing this nomination. Thank you, Senator Blackburn. Before recognizing

07:18Senator Tillis, I would like to make this point. The committee has received many

07:22letters of support for Ritz's nomination, including members of the Defense Bar in

07:27Tennessee. I want my colleagues to listen to this one sentence. One letter from the

07:33federal defender, the federal defender of the Western District of Tennessee, said

07:39of Mr. Ritz, I quote, a fair person of integrity, and notice his, quote,

07:45perfect temperament to serve as a judicial officer. That comes from the

07:50federal defender in Western District of Tennessee. Another letter from a criminal

07:55defense attorney who served as opposing counsel in cases with Ritz described him

08:00as, quote, intelligent, honest, hard-working, and fair. Before we make

08:05allegations of any witness before us lying to this committee, recall that they

08:11are under oath and that would involve a possible criminal action.

08:15I would be very careful in using that term myself. Senator Tillis. Thank you,

08:21Mr. Chair.

'You Should Be Very Concerned...': Marsha Blackburn Warns Durbin, Dems About Pending Judicial Nom

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