REUTERS
Jabari Wamble, U.S. President Joe Biden’s pick for a federal judgeship in Kansas, asked on Tuesday to have his nominationwithdrawn from consideration in the Senate, a letter obtained by Reuters showed.
He became the second Biden judicial nominee to drop out in as many weeks. Michael Delaney, a former New Hampshire attorney general selected by Biden for a spot on the Boston-based 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, last week asked to withdraw amid bipartisan criticism in the Senate.
Wamble, the son-in-law of Democratic U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, wrote in his letter to Biden that he feels that “it is best” to remain in his current position as a federal prosecutor in Kansas. Wamble did not give detailed reasons for his withdrawal.
A source familiar with the withdrawal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were concerns within the White House that Wamble would receive a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association, the lawyers’ group that assesses the qualifications of judicial nominees. No Biden nominee has yet received such a rating.
Wamble initially was tapped by the Democratic president last year for a seat on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the nomination expired in the Senate. Biden in February then nominated Wamble instead to serve as a district court judge in Kansas…
