Carrie Johnson

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1,251 appearances 127 recordings 4 series first heard Dec 2024 last heard 4 Sep

Carrie Johnson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 108 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 20.

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Consider This from NPR · When it comes to harassment, are federal judges above the law? · 3 Mar 2025 podcast

About a week after she left the judge's chamber, she ran into him at a party. I'm going to tell the next part of the story entirely from allegations in the court papers. That's in part because retelling it to me was too painful. At the party, he tried to get her to sit next to him on the couch. Eventually she left, but she got a text from him saying he needed to talk to her.

It was cold that night, so the judge suggested they chat inside his apartment. Once inside, the judge insisted she come to the bedroom. At first she sat on the corner of the bed, but he wanted her to lay down. Then, she told investigators, he grabbed her breast. She tried to pull his arm off, but he was really strong.

I just remember thinking, like there's nothing I can do about this, she told the investigators. This is about to happen. Like I always felt like this thing he could not touch. And finally, he felt like he could touch. A judge's control over the future of a young lawyer is real and lasting. With only a phone call, a judge can open doors to a lucrative job at a law firm or shut them permanently.

And there's no one really policing what happens inside a judge's chambers beside the judge themselves. Judicial independence and protecting the balance of power give judges a tremendous amount of sway over workplace rules. For nearly a year, I interviewed 42 people, current and former workers within the federal court system, about their experience.

They're men and women who work for more than two dozen judges, appointed by presidents from both major political parties. I heard from people whose self-confidence was shattered by judges who screamed so loudly others could hear from the hallways. People who were fired after a week or two on the job for no clear reason. Some describe sexual harassment like in the case of the Alaska clerk.

Many more shared episodes of bullying, and others said they faced discrimination because they had a disability or were pregnant. And things can get pretty tough for clerks who speak out. When the Alaska clerk reported the assault, she told a colleague who had been assigned to mentor her. But that mentor said she also had been coerced.

Her mentor later said the judge's power and authority contributed to the pressure she felt, and he told her he would have sway over a job she wanted. The former clerk heard from friends the judge was furious. And when she ran into him, he warned her to keep her head down and shut up.

The court system ultimately launched an investigation into the judge, Joshua Kindred. What followed were multiple rounds of interviews with investigators who cross-examined her and stress-tested her credibility. The court investigation took more than a year. All the while, two other young women clerks in the judge's chambers continued to work by his side. Then, in July...

Judge Joshua Kindred told investigators that the sexual experience was consensual and that he had no, quote, sinister intent. The special committee found the judge deliberately lied when he said nothing sexual had happened between them.

But the committee did not reach a conclusion about whether the judge sexually assaulted the former clerk, finding there was enough evidence to say the judge committed misconduct without even resolving that issue. Judge Kindred did not respond to NPR's attempts to reach him for comment. The clerk said she felt let down by the process. I was sexually assaulted.

The federal judiciary points to the departure of the Alaska judge as a demonstration the system works. The Administrative Office of the Courts, which sets policy from Washington, says they've taken extensive steps to protect clerks and other workers since the MeToo movement swept the country in 2017. And they say they hold judges to the highest standards.

But our investigation uncovered problems with the reporting system in the judicial branch. For one, there's a widespread culture of fear. And there's a good reason for that. Jamie Baker is a former judge who also worked in the White House and the military.

Not only is the relationship intense, it often comes with a huge age gap. Gabe Roth is executive director of Fix the Court. He's pushing the federal courts to be more accountable.

Another person pushing for change is Congresswoman Norma Torres, a Democrat from California.

Last fall, she convened a group of experts on the Hill to try to draw attention to the problem.

Torres says the courts operate in a patchwork, so no one's in charge of overseeing all the systems that employees use to report misconduct. She's working alongside Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson. Good morning. Pleasure to see you, sir.

Johnson's walking us through the Rayburn House office buildings. And into the Capitol to introduce the Judiciary Accountability Act. His bill would make clear the same legal protections for workers in the private sector and the executive branch also apply to the 30,000 people who work for the federal courts.

The legislation did not get a hearing before Congress left town last year. The people who work for federal judges, for probation departments, for public defenders, they can't go to the executive branch for help. And it's not clear they can sue in courts either. Aliza Schatzman runs the Legal Accountability Project.

The federal courts say they've done a lot to make sure workers are treated with dignity and respect. But I've been told clerks who run into trouble on the job still face tremendous pressure to remain silent. A bad word from a judge can derail a clerk's career, while judges serve for life. I heard it again and again.

Those judges who behave badly, often it's an open secret inside the courthouse, but nobody does anything about it. Many clerks graduated from top law schools and pride themselves on their smarts and resilience, only to break down in tears when they talk about hostile treatment they suffered working for federal judges. The judiciary protects its own, one clerk told me.

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