Nannygate “Love Judge” Kimba Wood didn’t recuse

Conflicted? Federal Judge Kimba Wood ordered President Trump’s Attorney, Michael Cohen, to publicly name Fox News host Sean Hannity in court today, but maybe it was Wood’s associations meriting scrutiny. (Amy Sussman / Getty Images)

Oh, the irony of hypocrisy.

The federal judge who possibly violated the Constitution today by ordering President Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, to publicly name his clients didn’t recuse herself from handling the matter despite the fact that she was the personal pick of Hillary Clinton for U.S. Attorney General in the 1990’s while Bill Clinton was president.

That’s according to this 20+-year-old Newsweek article about The (not so) Honorable Kimba Wood which a researcher dug up for FreeMartyG.

Apparently, Hillary was vetting female candidates for Attorney General and Wood was number 2 on the list. So, while many in the media are making a big deal right now about supposed conflicts of interest, no one has yet reported on the federal judge who continued presiding over the case of Trump’s lawyer despite the obvious and significant — yet largely unknown and/or forgotten — reasons for the public to doubt her impartiality. On top of that, Wood forced Cohen to make this disclosure in open court despite attorney-client privilege. By law, that privilege belongs to Cohen’s clients, who include Fox News host Sean Hannity, and Cohen can’t wave it for them. Nor did he seem to want to do such, according to a Bloomberg play-by-play of the hearing.

Further, the public’s interest in the identities of Cohen’s clients cannot outweigh their constitutionally-protected attorney-client confidentiality, at least not outside of Wood’s courtroom, or no high-profile client would ever be able to trust their lawyer. And the Supreme Court has ruled that attorney-client privilege does extend to protect the knowledge of the very existence of the attorney-client relationship itself.

So, Cohen’s clients had every reason not to disclose that they had retained him for non-public matters as doing such could be misconstrued as them waving that right. Apparently, the rest of Kimba Wood’s past is also sordid. She was withdrawn from consideration for Attorney General in the 1990’s after it came out that she had hired an “illegal alien” as a nanny. Apparently, she lied to the White House about it and the hire became part of the “nannygate” scandal.

For the rest of history of Wood’s 3 marriages as the “Love Judge,” see this New York Daily News article.

Marty Gottesfeld is an Obama-era political prisoner and Republican Senate candidate against incumbent Elizabeth Warren. You can donate to his legal defense fund at FreeMartyG.com or to his political campaign at VoteMartyG.com.