Judge Kent Resigns On Eve of Impeachment Hearing — Effective One Year From Now

With hearings scheduled for House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Impeachment, U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent has decided to turn in this resignation to President Barack Obama. His lawyer Dick DeGuerin says that the hearings are now unnecessary and Judge Kent will not participate. However, his resignation will reportedly only be effective June 1, 2010.”

The date is designed to milk the system of as much benefits as possible — only to resign shortly before any completion of impeachment.

Absent a voluntary resignation or impeachment, Kent can continue to receive his judicial salary of $174,000 a year plus benefits. To engage in such open pilfering of the public fisc adds yet another ignoble fact to Kent’s disgraceful end to his judicial career.

DeGuerin insisted that Kent wanted to avoid a “spectacle” and had decided “to try to save the embarrassment that these useless hearings would have. That’s embarrassing for the judicial system as well as everybody involved.” Hmmm, and milking the system to the very last minute is testament to the judicial system? Of course, since Judge Kent is himself the spectacle, the best way to avoid the embarrassment is for him to resign immediately and go off to jail.

Kent was sentenced on May 11 to 33 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial inquiry. He was charged with sexually harassing a court employee.

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