(Photo
by
Bill
O’Leary/The
Washington
Post
via
Getty
Images)
We
know
most
of
the
moving
parts
of
what’s
happening
with
the
coup
against
Pauline
Newman
at
the
Federal
Circuit.
Her
colleagues
are
trying
to
bypass
the
constitutionally
approved
way
of
impeaching
judges
—
a
vote
of
impeachment
by
the
House
and
a
trial
and
conviction
by
the
Senate
—
and
instead
decided
to
withhold
cases
from
her
after
she
didn’t
bow
out
and
take
senior
status.
As
you
would
expect
of
a
panel
that’s
acting
as
judge,
jury,
and
executioner,
they
want
to
toss
Newman’s
lawsuit
aiming
at
reinstatement.
But
as
we
talk
about
the
case’s
progression,
it
would
be
in
good
form
to
update
our
reporting
with
the
information
that
has
come
out
over
time.
From
Bloomberg
Law:
Federal
Circuit
Chief
Judge
Kimberly
A.
Moore
launched
the
fitness
probe
in
late
March
in
the
wake
of
Newman
allegedly
suffering
a
cardiac
incident—the
details
of
which
have
been
hotly
contested—and
amid
concerns
over
her
productivity.
Given
that
the
original
accusation
—
that
the
judge
had
a
heart
attack
and
had
stents
put
in
her
heart
—
was
disproven
by
a
scan
and
her
medical
records,
it
is
hardly
fair
to
refer
to
this
as
“hotly
contested.”
If
anything
warrants
the
phrase,
maybe
it’s
the
doctor
who
took
the
panel
to
task
for
“distorting”
the
medical
report
that
gauged
Newman’s
mental
acuity.
Someone
lied
under
conditions
that
are
damned
close
to
being
under
oath
and
has
faced
no
real
consequences.
Her
colleagues
allege
Newman’s
no
longer
able
to
perfom
[sic]
simple
tasks,
lacks
focus
and
has
accused
the
court’s
IT
staff
of
hacking
her
computer.
Is
attending
and
speaking
at
conferences
a
simple
task?
Because
she
seems
to
be
knocking
those
out
of
the
park.
Lacking
focus?
Again,
unless
there
are
some
substantive
issues
with
Dr.
Rothstein’s
assessment,
reporting
on
this
should
advise
the
reader
to
take
it
with
a
grain
of
salt.
As
far
as
the
hacking
is
concerned,
I
can’t
say
for
certain
that
this
is
what
they
are
referring
to,
but
it
sounds
pretty
similar
to
something
Pauline
mentioned
during
my
interview
with
her.
Here
is
an
excerpt
from
that
conversation:
Chris
Williams:
There
was
one
thing
I
heard,
I
wanted
to
get
your
side
of
it.
One
of
the
things
that
was
said
was
you
either
did
or
threatened
to
call
the
police
on
a
clerk
at
one
point.
Did
that
ever
happen?
Did
anything
like
that
happen?
Judge
Pauline
Newman:
Not
quite,
but
I’ll
tell
you
what
happened.Because
I
know
they
got
the
fellow
who
was
involved
in
this
exchange
to
file
an
affidavit
in
which
he
said
I
threatened
him.
He
said
I
threatened
him
with
thievery
or
stealing.
So
this
was
May
15th.
And
the
reason
it
was
May
15th
was
because
that
is
the
due
date
of
the
judge’s
financial
disclosure
form.It
was
a
Monday.
And
meanwhile
they
had
taken
away
my
secretary.
About
two
or
two
or
three
weeks
before
that,
they
also
took
my
computer,
the
chamber’s
computer,
and
they
refused
to
give
it
back.I
said,
I
need
my
computer.
It’s
got
my
personal
information
on
it.
And
they
said,
we’ve
transferred
everything
you
need.
And
I
said,
well,
let
me
see.
There’s
a
lot
of
stuff
that
I
need.
And
they
said,
no,
we’re
not
going
to
give
it
back.Then
comes
May
15th,
and
I
have
to
file
my
financial
disclosure
form.
I
have
only
one
source
of
outside
income
other
than
my
salary,
and
that’s
my
piece
of
the
royalties
of
a
case
book
of
Golden
and
Kieff
and
me
and
a
couple
of
others.
They
send
me
royalty
statements
and
the
royalty
statements
I
give
to
the
secretary
to
save,
so
that
when
I
file
my
financial
disclosure
form
for
outside
income,
I
add
up
the
royalty
statements.
So
I
said,
I
need
my
computer,
my
chamber’s
computer,
because
it’s
got
my
personal
information
on
it.
And
so
they
sent
up
somebody
from
the
IT
staff.
So
he
says,
I’m
here
to
show
you
how
to
fill
out
the
financial
disclosure
form
on
your
computer.
It’s
a
nine-page
form.
And,
because
I
think
I
also
said
that
I
don’t
know
how
to
do
this,
which
is
true,
I
don’t
know
how
to
fill
out
forms
on
a
computer.
And
I
said,
no,
I
need
the
information
on
my
computer.
And
he
says,
I’m
here
to
show
you
—
well-chosen
words
—
I’m
here
to
show
you
how
to
fill
out
the
form.He
used
exactly
the
same
words
about
20
times.
After
about
15
minutes,
I
ended
the
conversation
and
they
disappeared.
Then
he
files
this
affidavit
saying
I
threatened
him
with
thievery.
Well,
probably
I
did,
in
a
way,
because
he
had
been
the
same
person
I
had
understood
who
had
carried
away
the
computer.His
instruction
came
from
the
chief
judge.
And
this
is
a
digression,
but
it’s
pretty
clear
to
me
there
were
things
on
that
computer
that
they
wanted,
whether
it
was
back
and
forth
with
the
person
who
had
been
my
secretary
at
the
time,
who
they
gave
another
job
to,
or
what,
I
don’t
know.
I
assume
switching
out
computers
and
not
being
able
to
access
my
files
got
“heard
it
through
the
grapevined”
into
hacking.
While
the
committee
may
very
well
be
referring
to
a
different
incident,
I
wanted
to
at
least
show
my
cards.
The
Bloomberg
article
continues:
The
outbursts
detailed
in
filings
“were
only
the
tip
of
the
iceberg,”
according
to
Friday’s
reply
brief.
“While
those
significant
concerns
about
Judge
Newman’s
fitness
persist
today,
the
circumstances
surrounding
her
amended
complaint
do
not.
Judge
Newman
has
steadfastly
re-fused
to
comply
with
the
Special
Committee’s
common-sense
requests
that
she
undergo
specified
cognitive
testing,
provide
specified
medical
records,
or
even
participate
in
an
inter-view
with
the
Committee.”
Yeah,
about
those
“common-sense
requests.”
From
the
very
beginning,
Judge
Newman
has
argued,
rather
persuasively,
that
submitting
this
information
to
a
panel
full
of
people
accusing
(and
in
the
case
of
the
heart
attack,
outright
lying)
her
of
physical
and
mental
health
deficiencies
is
a
clear
conflict
of
interest
and
a
due
process
issue.
The
common-sense
request
was
her
initial
one
—
that
a
different
circuit
do
the
evaluation.
As
the
story
develops,
try
to
keep
an
eye
out
for
Special
Committee
parroting
that’s
being
passed
off
as
an
objective
relaying
of
facts.
Deny
Oldest
US
Judge’s
Case
for
Reinstatement,
Colleagues
Argue
[Bloomberg
Law]
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.