Biden expected to withdraw controversial judicial nominee

President Biden is expected to withdraw his nomination of Michael Delaney to serve on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, two sources familiar with the decision told The Hill on Thursday.

Delaney’s nomination has been in limbo in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Democrats unsure of his controversial handling of a sexual assault case at a boarding school in New Hampshire.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had urged the Biden administration earlier Thursday to withdraw the nomination.

“His answers to questions from committee members, regarding a lawsuit where he represented a private school accused of allowing sexual harassment and assault of a minor student, were ‘beyond the pale’ bad,” the senator said in a statement.

The New Hampshire attorney has come under fire for representing St. Paul’s School, an elite private high school in New Hampshire, against a lawsuit brought by female student who was sexually assaulted on campus when she was 15.  

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill last week he was undecided about Delaney’s nomination. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) returned last week to her post on the committee and greenlit three judicial nominees who were stalled with her absence, but the panel has not brought up Delaney for a vote.