Alaska U.S. District Court Judge Joshua Kindred resigned after a federal judicial council determined he had “sexualized relationship” with a clerk, lied about it to a senior judge and investigators, and maintained a hostile workplace for law clerks.
Kindred resigned effective July 8, after the judicial council for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requested his resignation in a May 23 order. Kindred was nominated by President Donald Trump in November 2019 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in February 2020.
The order followed the work of a special committee, which found that Kindred “created a hostile work environment for his law clerks by engaging in unwanted, offensive and abusive conduct, and treating the law clerks in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner.”
Kindred also “engaged in misconduct by having an inappropriately sexualized relationship with one of his law clerks during her clerkship and shortly after clerkship while she practiced as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Alaska,” according to the order.
The order said Kindred lied to Chief Circuit Judge Mary H. Murguia, the special committee and the council after Murguia received a complaint about him in November 2022. Kindred maintained he “never had any sexual contact” with the clerk, but later admitted to it when asked under oath in April 2024.
“In all respects, this was a serious and sensitive matter,” Murguia said. “I thank the witnesses who provided information, understanding fully how difficult that may have been.”
The council held that Kindred’s behavior might constitute grounds for impeachment under the U.S. Constitution and that he violated the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act rules for judges. The council ordered that he be publicly reprimanded and resign.
Kindred held one of only three U.S. District Court judgeships designated for Alaska; with one of the positions already vacant, his resignation leaves Judge Sharon Gleason as the only active judge, though four senior judges in Alaska can also take cases.
The order recounts how Kindred used crude, sexual language with law clerks in both his chambers and in text messages.
He engaged in 278 pages of text messages with one clerk, with only a small fraction having any relationship to her legitimate job duties, according to the investigation.
A former clerk said Kindred attempted to initiate a romantic encounter, which he denied, alleging she had initiated it.
“However, these denials were belied by documentary evidence and, as revealed later during Judge Kindred’s testimony to the Judicial Council, by Judge Kindred’s own admissions,” according to the order for his resignation.
In its findings of misconduct, the judicial council noted that Kindred repeatedly said he had no “sinister intent” in his relationships with law clerks, but added that federal rules for judicial conduct are not framed in terms of intent.
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