White House Lawyer Nominated as Judge Apologizes for Posts (1)

A White House lawyer nominated to a federal judgeship apologized for her social media posts that attacked senators.

Kara Westercamp, who now works in the White House Counsel’s Office, said at her confirmation hearing Wednesday that she regrets her past tweets and sharing of posts that described Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as “Cocaine Mitch” and took jabs at Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), as well as Senate Democrats.

“I do sincerely apologize for those posts,” Westercamp told the Senate Judiciary Committee. She said the posts were made in her “personal capacity,” and that she has “seriously considered” deactivating her account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

She said if confirmed to the US Court of International Trade, she would follow the ethics rules for federal judges, including any use of social media. The blog Balls & Strikes first reported on Westercamp’s social media posts. Her X profile is currently set to private, meaning her posts are shielded to everyone except her followers.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the panel, pressed Westercamp about posts that apparently downplayed the violence that took place as President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Westercamp said she condemned all violence that took place during that day, but declined to answer direct questions by Durbin about rejecting conspiracy theories that law enforcement and not rioters were responsible for the violence. She said retweets relating to that topic stem from sharing “posts from people I don’t know,” and that she regrets sharing them.

If confirmed, Westercamp would sit on the court that’s currently presiding over the litigation from parties seeking refunds after the US Supreme Court last month rejected Trump’s authority to issue sweeping tariffs on other countries. She said she couldn’t give specifics, but that she advised Trump on executive orders and other matters relating to tariffs.

Westercamp said she would seriously consider recusing herself from cases if it stemmed from matters she worked on at the White House. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Westercamp had told the committee in writing that she would recuse from all matters she worked on there, and the nominee said that is correct. She added that she’s not currently working on any matters before the Court of International Trade.

Also appearing at the hearing was Kathleen “Katie” Lane, a nominee for the US District Court for the District of Montana. She faced questions from Democratic senators about her lack of experience as an attorney, as she graduated from law school in 2017. Coons and others noted that she had only conducted one deposition and cross-examined one witness.

Lane defended her experience by pointing to her two federal judicial clerkships, and said she currently has over 100 cases in her role as senior counsel for the Republican National Committee.

The committee also considered former House lawyer Sheria Clarke, now an attorney with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, for a seat on the US District Court for the District of South Carolina. Former federal prosecutor and current Walmart attorney Evan Rikhye was also questioned ahead of a potential 10-year term as a federal judge in the Virgin Islands.

Democrats on the committee expressed frustration after they again faced answers by nominees that relied on constitutional processes in saying Joe Biden was made president after the 2020 election, rather than directly stating that Biden defeated Trump in that race.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the nominees’ answers, which echoed each other, “fundamentally show a complete lack of independence and backbone and impartiality, which are the fundamental requirements of a United States district court judge or a judge on any panel.”

There are currently 46 current and future judicial vacancies on the federal courts. Trump has announced nominees for 11 of those seats, including the four witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing