President Trump’s pick to be a federal district judge in Alabama has written about paranormal activities, according to a new report.
Brett Talley said he was part of the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group between 2009 and 2010, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire obtained by The Daily Beast.
The group says on its website it is “searching for the truth of the paranormal existence” and helps those who may be “living with paranormal activity that can be disruptive and/or traumatic.”
{mosads}The founder of the group, David Higdon, said its members “go into a house between maybe 7 at night and 6 in the morning and stay up all night long and see if we can see what’s going on.”
“If we go into a private house, we mainly try and debunk what’s going on,” he told The Daily Beast.
Talley has also written books on the subject, including one with Higdon called “Haunted Tuscaloosa.”
“In the pages of this book, you will hear tales of haunted houses and shadows moving through university buildings,” the authors wrote in the book.
“We will enter abandoned insane asylums, antebellum homes and ancient cemeteries. We will review stories of long-dead Civil War soldiers, of women driven insane by the death of loves and of some leading lights of Tuscaloosa who still walk in the massive homes they constructed.”
Stuart Stevens, the campaign manager for Mitt Romney’s 2012 GOP presidential run, told The Daily Beast he finds it “hilarious” that no one is writing about Talley’s “horror writing.”
“He has a cult following,” Stevens said. “I have to say I wasn’t really aware he was a lawyer as my dealings with him were as a writer on campaign. He’s an interesting, smart guy. But so is Stephen King.”
Talley has faced scrutiny after he was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee despite having never tried a case.
A report Monday said he did not disclose that he is married to a White House lawyer who has been interviewed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling.
Talley is married to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff to the White House counsel. Talley did not include this information on a Senate questionnaire when asked about conflicts of interests, according to The New York Times.
Talley was also deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association.