Alaska US Attorney Defends Office From Retaliation Claims

Alaska’s US attorney is strongly defending her office against claims that its leaders retaliated against a former employee who reported sexual misconduct against a federal judge.

S. Lane Tucker, the US attorney for the District of Alaska, said in a statement sent to Bloomberg Law on Thursday that a recently announced settlement between the Justice Department and a former prosecutor “expressly denies” any wrongdoing by her office’s management. The former prosecutor, who had clerked for US District Judge Joshua Kindred prior to going to work in the US attorney’s office, alleged she was denied a permanent job because she reported Kindred’s sexual misconduct.

“Far from retaliating against whistleblowing, my management team and I elevated all allegations of wrongdoing both within DOJ and to the court system,” Tucker said. “We were told that offices within DOJ with the appropriate investigatory authority would promptly investigate and hold wrongdoers to account while the court system investigated separately.”

“The process has been frustratingly long and the fallout from Judge Kindred’s actions continue,” Tucker added. Bloomberg Law isn’t naming the former prosecutor because she’s a survivor of sexual misconduct.

A representative for the former prosecutor didn’t immediately have comment.

Kindred resigned from the bench in July, days before a judicial panel released findings saying he subjected his former clerk and others in his chambers to an abusive, sexualized, and hostile work environment. The federal judiciary has certified a referral to the House for Kindred’s potential impeachment.

The former prosecutor alleged in a whistleblower complaint filed with the Office of Special Counsel that the Anchorage US attorney’s office leadership initially denied her request to be detailed to another Justice Department entity, after she said she was afraid of Kindred and didn’t want to work in the same building as him.

Tucker said in her statement Thursday that the former prosecutor isn’t the individual who first reported Kindred’s misconduct to her office’s management.

The whistleblower complaint states that another staffer had reported misconduct by Kindred to a supervisor in the office, but that the former prosecutor had shared with that supervisor significantly more information about the extent of his misconduct. Bloomberg Law hasn’t been able to reach Kindred for comment since his resignation.

Tucker also said that the permanent position the former prosecutor had applied to wasn’t filled due to budget cuts. The former prosecutor had alleged in the whistleblower complaint that two of the prosecutors who interviewed her for the permanent job had recommended her for the role, and that she learned it was her last day in her term position through an office-wide email.

“I remain proud of the proactive way that our office responded to allegations of wrongdoing here, including by offering alternative work arrangements to the Complainant,” Tucker said.

The Justice Department and the former prosecutor settled a separate Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint, according to Wednesday’s press release from the OSC. That led to OSC — which investigates federal sector whistleblower claims — closing its investigation into the matter, the agency said.

The findings against Kindred have affected Tucker’s office and the cases its attorneys have prosecuted. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in September that DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which examines potential misconduct by government attorneys, has opened an investigation stemming from the Anchorage office’s conduct.

Dozens of cases have also been flagged by prosecutors for potential conflicts with Kindred, prompting some defense attorneys to ask the federal court to revisit convictions. Alaska federal prosecutors last month asked to throw out a criminal conviction in a case where Kindred didn’t recuse himself, as the judge had received nude photographs from a senior prosecutor on the case.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said the senator is “deeply concerned about the numerous ethical transgressions” in the Alaska US attorney’s office and called on the Justice Department to “undertake a comprehensive investigation of this incident, and other related allegations of wrongdoing at the U.S. Attorney’s office and hold responsible parties to account.”