Impeaching Judge Samuel B. Kent
Floor Speech
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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is not a happy day anytime we have to take this type of solemn action.
I first want to thank my chairman, the Honorable JOHN CONYERS from Michigan, who is the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, for his promptness and his diligence in bringing this matter to us as soon as humanly possible. And we're at this point now because of the chairman. I also want to recognize our colleague Mr. ADAM SCHIFF who, having been entrusted by the leadership to bring this to the floor, has performed admirably. And I lastly want to thank Ms. Cathy McBroom and Ms. Donna Wilkerson. These are the two ladies that took the covers off of this egregious behavior by Judge Kent. The integrity of our judiciary is fundamental to the functioning of our legal system. Judge Samuel Kent's egregious behavior leaves no doubt that he is not fit to remain a judge.
Can you imagine having to go to work every day, having to go back to your job after a weekend, and you know that at any time or any day that you could be subjected to sexual misconduct by your boss? And you have a great Federal job, you need your job for your family, so you just endure it for year after year after year, until it gets to a point where you have to file a complaint and subject all of your personal affairs to the Nation. It took a lot of courage for them to do that, and I appreciate that. I want to apologize on behalf of all males for them having to go through that.
Mr. Speaker, what we have here is a situation where the judge has committed sexual abuse repeatedly. He has lied about it. He has pleaded guilty to the felony charge of obstruction.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CONYERS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. He lied about it, and he admitted that he was in fact guilty of the sexual abuse.
So this is what we call a slam dunk. There is no reason for this judge to remain on the bench. He should have resigned, but he didn't have the decency to do that, so now we must do what we must do.
I urge all Members to vote ``yes'' on the impeachment.
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