Thread by @WeDemandJustice

Last night the New York Times reported that a federal judge asked John Roberts to assign an investigation into whether Mitch McConnell unethically induced a sitting judge to retire so he could install his protégé Justin Walker in his place.

Here's how we got here: #StopWalker

First @nytimes reported McConnell was privately lobbying judges to retire so Trump could fill their seats and the Republican Senate could fast-track nominations this term.

Then Judge Griffith abruptly announced his retirement.

Coincidence? Suspicious. nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/…

@nytimes If Mitch McConnell offered a sitting judge anything of value to convince him to retire, that would be a clear violation of ethics rules.

So we called for an investigation into Judge Griffith’s suspiciously timed retirement.

news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/wa…

@nytimes Then, just days later, Trump nominated McConnell protégé Justin Walker to fill Griffith’s newly open seat on the second highest court in America. That would explain why McConnell was so eager to create this vacancy!

nytimes.com/2020/04/03/us/…

@nytimes After that, things got even more interesting. The Washington Post reported that the White House had contacted Justin Walker for this job well before Judge Griffith had announced his retirement.

How did they know it was coming?

washingtonpost.com/politics/white…

@nytimes Then we learned our request for investigation had been referred to John Roberts. And a McConnell spokesperson refused to say whether he’d spoken with Griffith before he retired.

Beyond suspicious. The Senate must halt consideration of Walker’s nomination until this gets resolved