A second White House nominee to a federal court bench has turned down the opportunity.
President Biden previously nominated federal prosecutor Jabari Wamble to a Kansas district court seat. Wamble pulled his nomination Tuesday in a letter sent to Biden.
“After careful thought and consideration, I feel that it is best for me to continue my work at the United States’s Attorney’s Office in the District of Kansas. I have been humbled and honored by the faith you placed in me with this nomination,” Wamble wrote, according to Politico.
Aides close to the process expected Wamble to receive a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association, according to Politico.
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“President Biden is proud to have nominated Jabari Wamble, a deeply qualified attorney who has served with distinction as a prosecutor at the state and federal level in Kansas, who received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas, and who has dedicated his life to serving the people of Kansas,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Wamble is the second federal court nominee selected by Biden to turn down the opportunity.
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Previously, Michael Delany backed out of an appointment to the First Circuit Court of Appeals after brutal questioning during a Senate confirmation hearing for the role he played in defending a New Hampshire prep school in a famous student rape case from 2014.
In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, GOP senators grilled Michael Arthur Delaney, who is nominated to serve on a First Circuit court, for his role as defense attorney for the elite St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, during the case against Owen Lambrie. When he was 18, Lambrie was accused of raping a 15-year-old student, Chessy Prout.
The contention in the hearing stemmed from a motion that Delaney filed during the 2014 court proceedings that could have required Prout, who was a minor at the time, to have her anonymity lifted.
Delaney defended his position by saying the motion he filed was in the context of a back-and-forth between lawyers about whether Prout could stay anonymous and whether Prout’s legal team would agree not to discuss the case in the press.
He said it was not “in any way intended to intimidate any of the parties to the case.” The motion was ultimately withdrawn, and Prout chose to come forward publicly on her own.
Fox News Digital’s Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.