NPR Investigation: Harassment In The Federal Court System
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What is the focus of NPR's investigation in this episode?
Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. And today on the pod, we have something special. Our colleague, Kerry Johnson, who's NPR's justice correspondent, has been working for almost a year on a story about a subject we rarely hear about, what happens inside the chambers of a federal judge, especially when it comes to the way judges treat their clerks, who are young, vulnerable, and as Kerry found out, terrified of ever reporting any wrongdoing. And just a warning, this piece contains a description of sexual assault. Carrie takes it from here.
In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic began to shut things down, a recent law school graduate started a new job all the way across the country in Alaska. She accepted a coveted post as a law clerk for a federal judge.
What are the experiences of federal judicial employees in the court system?
It's kind of like a unicorn. It's a position that follows you for the rest of your life. It's on the top of your resume. It's You know, people pay attention to it, especially a federal court clerkship. The clerk hoped this job would jumpstart her career.
She didn't know anyone else there, only the judge.
The judge was the HR department. The judge was my boss. The judge was a colleague. The judge was everything. He had all the power. He started testing her boundaries early on. It started immediately. The inappropriate conversations, there was a lot of talk about the judge's personal relationships, about sexual relationships.
She says she thought it was part of her job to listen to the judge and help him with anything. He was going through a divorce, and he began to text her constantly, to the point where her phone felt like an electric leash.
He'd told me that I was a confidant, and he'd given me the title of career clerk. And, you know, he'd spoken to me about what an honor that was. And, I mean, this is ridiculous, but I thought I was doing a public service.
That pressure built. He texted that she looked like a, quote, fucking Disney princess and that he liked her blue pants. He even asked how things were going with her boyfriend.
You know, I never had respite from being just a few text messages away from him. It was constant. It was during work. It was after work. It was all the time. In the summer of 2022, things got worse. That's when he told me he'd been communicating with this prosecutor that was appearing before him, and she had been sending nude photos.
How did the Alaska clerk's experience unfold?
And that was the breaking point for me, where I decided I needed to leave.
She stayed in Alaska, but she got a new job as a federal prosecutor. And this, she hoped, would put an end to the ordeal. As it turned out, that was wrong. The voice you've been hearing is not her real voice, although they are her words verbatim. We're using a voice actor because she was too afraid to talk. You'll understand why in a moment. 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. He took off her pants and performed oral sex on her. A judge's control over the future of a young lawyer is real and lasting.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the focus of NPR's investigation in this episode?
0:25–1:12
2
What are the experiences of federal judicial employees in the court system?
1:12–2:55
3
How did the Alaska clerk's experience unfold?
2:55–6:58
4
What systemic issues exist in reporting judicial misconduct?
6:58–9:51
5
How does the power dynamic affect clerks in the federal judiciary?
9:51–12:54
6
What are the options for clerks facing abuse in the federal court system?
12:54–29:41