DOJ ignores request in Farr's nomination to federal bench

Documents could shed light on accusation that nominee to the U.S. District Court perjured himself.

Posted 6:33 p.m. Jan 26, 2018 — Updated 6:59 p.m. Jan 26, 2018

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to release decades-old documents that could shed light on an accusation that a pending nominee to the U.S. District Court in North Carolina lied to a U.S. Senate committee.

Attorney Thomas Farr's confirmation has been a rocky one, with members of Congress and others all but calling him a racist over his ties to late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' political machine and his legal work defending Republican-backed voter ID and redistricting efforts in North Carolina. Democratic 12th District Congresswoman Alma Adams, for example, called his nomination "another tragic example of the racism that permeates President Trump's actions and animates his policies."

U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, who recommended Farr for the open seat on the bench in the Eastern District, which covers Raleigh, have stood by him, complaining of character assassination. Former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr published a column last week blasting partisan opposition to Farr, whom he deemed "exceptionally well qualified" and said would be a "conscientious judge mindful of his constitutional responsibilities to people of all beliefs and races."

Orr also acknowledged that North Carolina's Republican senators blocked two Obama-era nominees, both black women, to this same judicial seat, "adding salt to the wound" for those pushing back against Farr.

Farr's nomination hit a speed bump after a November report from Indy Week, which quoted former Justice Department attorney Gerald Hebert, now at the left-leaning Campaign Legal Center. As part of confirmation hearings, Farr had told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he didn't know about a Helms' campaign mailer meant to suppress the black vote in North Carolina until the mailers had gone out and the Justice Department started asking questions.

Farr described himself as "appalled" by the letter.

Carter Wrenn, who was with the Helms campaign at the time and remains a well-known North Carolina political consultant, backed Farr's story. But Hebert, who investigated the mailer when he was with the Justice Department, told Indy Week that Farr was involved earlier. He'd told The News & Observer the same thing in 2009, Indy Week reported.

Some of Farr's supporters dismissed Hebert's account. Hebert had also testified against now-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session's appointment to a federal judgeship in 1986, and he ended up recanting a portion of that testimony, which is archived online. Sessions' predecessor, Hebert acknowledged, had attempted to block a civil rights investigation in Alabama, not Sessions himself. Hebert had initially backed the testimony of a colleague, who'd said Sessions was to blame.

Neither Hebert nor Farr have returned WRAL News phone calls seeking comment.

U.S. Sen. Corey Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, sent the Justice Department a letter seeking documents from the Helms campaign investigation that might clear up what meetings Farr was involved in, what he knew about the mailer and when.

The DOJ's response? According to Booker's office, silence. The department ignored his request, a spokesman said.

WRAL News reached out to the department on this.

"DOJ declines comment," spokesman Devin O’Malley said in an email.

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