Judge sits in silence as senator corners her for backing Trump’s election lies

U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event to honor Angel Families who have lost family members to crimes committed by people in the country illegally, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. / Reuters

On Wednesday morning during Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings, a judge nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals by President Donald Trump had her disqualification explained on no uncertain terms: her clear “lack of independence.” This is according to HuffPost Senior Politics Reporter Jennifer Bendery, who posted from within the hearing, “Right on time, another Trump court pick – Anna St. John, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit – will only say Biden was ‘certified’ president in 2020.”

This is in reference to a common tactic that has been used by a wide range of Trump nominees hoping to avoid the president’s ire when asked about the 2020 election during confirmation. A number of Democratic senators have taken to regularly asking nominees questions regarding who won the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 insurrection as a test of their unswerving loyalty to Trump, and routinely, nominees refuse to admit that former President Joe Biden won the election, saying only that he was “certified” the winner.

According to Bendery, St. John was also asked by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) whether the Capitol was attacked on January 6, 2021. The nominee struggled to respond, saying, “I want to be very careful with my language.”

“‘You are... continuing to adopt the president's distorted and inaccurate illusion’ about J6 and the 2020 election, Blumenthal scolded St. John, who sat silently,” posted Bendery. “‘It indicates a lack of independence,’ he says. ‘That lack of independence is disqualifying for you to be a judge.’”

Bendery notes that St. John is currently a U.S. District Judge, which entered into the hearing when Blumenthal asserted, "You have a lifetime appointment. Trump can't do anything to you. You have no reason to fear his vaunted vindictiveness against anyone who would defy his illusion about January 6." According to Bendery, he proceeded to rip into her "rehearsed and regurgitated" responses.

This comes shortly after a group of former federal prosecutors who were involved with cases against J6 rioters held a press event in which they begged Senators to stop accepting Trump’s J6-sympathetic nominees.

“Please stop poisoning our courts by confirming appointees who refuse to admit basic historical truths,” pleaded former assistant U.S. attorney Sean Murphy. “This is not a problem of perspective or political persuasion. It is a fundamental question of competence.” He’s part of a group of 12 former prosecutors who sent a letter to senators raising red flags about putting election deniers on the court, writing that the nominees’ “refusal to contradict the President’s lies… raises significant questions about whether, once confirmed, a nominee could act independently and free from political interference from the president that nominated them.”

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