A lawyer nominated by President Trump to be a federal judge went viral today after a disastrous video featuring him fumbling answers to basic legal questions surfaced online.
Mathew Spencer Petersen struggled horribly during his questioning by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA).
Peterson is seen having difficulty answering questions on basic aspects of trial procedure, such as the “Daubert standard”, which related to witness testimony, and the definition of a “motion in limine”, which related to the introduction of evidence.
Mr. Peterson admitted that he has never tried a case or argued a motion in court and the last time he read the federal rules evidence was in law school, which he graduated from in 1999. “In my current position,” Petersen stated, “I obviously don’t need to stay as invested in those on a day-to-day basis, but I do try to keep up to speed.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) posted the video to his Twitter account, telling people it was a “MUST WATCH.”
MUST WATCH: Republican @SenJohnKennedy asks one of @realDonaldTrump’s US District Judge nominees basic questions of law & he can’t answer a single one. Hoo-boy. pic.twitter.com/fphQx2o1rc
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 15, 2017
Trump nominated Peterson in September to fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After the video went viral, several lawyers wrote that, “the questions he was being asked could be answered by a second year law student.”
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