SCOTUS runner-up, rumored to be traveling to DC for the big announcement, drove to Altoona instead
Judge Thomas Hardiman.
Trump administration officials reportedly told several journalists that Judge Thomas Hardiman, said to be a SCOTUS nominee finalist, was traveling to Washington, D.C., for Trump’s nominee announcement on Tuesday.
But Hardiman, of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, never made it beyond Altoona, Pennsylvania, the New York Times reports.
Hardiman had been informed Tuesday morning that President Trump’s Supreme Court choice was Judge Neil Gorsuch of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That same day, he got in his car and began driving.
Three anonymous administration officials told the Times that Hardiman’s mysterious trip was intended to send a message that two judges were still in the running. Rather than driving to D.C., Hardiman traveled to Altoona to visit a 3rd Circuit colleague, Judge D. Brooks Smith.
Smith said Hardiman came to visit him to discuss the buildup in previous weeks when Hardiman was, for a short time, considered the favorite. “He really just wanted to discuss what had happened, and suggesting that he was part of some ruse is an extremely unlikely scenario,” Smith told the Times.
Hardiman didn’t respond to a request for comment by the New York Times.
