Matthew Petersen, Donald Trump’s nominee for the circuit court of the District of Columbia, who had struggled to answer basic questions about courtroom procedure in a viral video clip, has withdrawn his nomination.
“I had hoped that my nearly two decades of public service might carry more weight than my two worst minutes on television,” he said in a letter to US President Donald Trump on Monday.
“However, I am no stranger to political realities, and I do not wish to be a continued distraction from the important work of your Administration and the Senate.”
Petersen is the third judicial nominees introduced by Trump to withdraw in the last week.
Petersen was grilled by Republican Senator John Kennedy over basic points of legal doctrine last week, only for the nominee to confess embarrassingly that he does not know the answers and lacks experience in the areas mentioned by the senator.
During the hearing, Petersen had to acquiesce on many occasions that his "background was not in litigation," despite the role he was up for.
"I understand the challenge that would be ahead of me if I were fortunate enough to become a district court judge," he confessed.
In a Monday morning interview, Kennedy said that Peterson is a “decent guy,” but too inexperienced for the bench.
“Just because you’ve seen ‘My Cousin Vinny’ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge,” he said, referring to the 1992 movie starring Joe Pesci.
Peterson, who is a member of the Federal Election Commission, had been rated "qualified" by the American Bar Association, but “he has no litigation experience and my job on the Judiciary Committee is to catch them,” Kennedy said.
Petersen is Trump’s third district court nominee to quit over a lack of qualifications. Brett Talley, a 36-year-old lawyer who had never tried a case and earned a rare and unanimous “not qualified” rating by the American Bar Association, withdrew his nomination last week. Jeff Mateer was removed following comments that surfaced where he called transgender children part of "Satan's plan."
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