[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 98 (Tuesday, June 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Judicial Nominations

  Mr. President, on another matter, I haven't spared any breath calling 
attention to the parade of unfit nominees that the Biden administration 
would like to see confirmed to lifetime seats on the Federal bench.
  I have urged my colleagues to consider Adeel Mangi's alarming 
connections to terrorist sympathizers and Nancy Maldonado's record of 
staggering unproductivity in the lower court. So it is only fitting 
that I call attention to another nominee whose affiliations bear all 
the hallmarks of the dark money influence that so animates some of our 
senior-most colleagues on the Judiciary Committee.
  The Senate hears a great deal from our colleague the junior Senator 
from Rhode Island on the subject of dark money, but so far, I haven't 
heard him express any concern that Sparkle Sooknanan, nominated to the 
DC Circuit Court, has secured the support of Robert Raben.
  Mr. Raben, of course, is a notorious shepherd of liberal nominees 
whose client list reads like a who's-who of liberal dark money, with 
groups backed by everyone from George Soros to Arabella Advisors.
  Apparently, this nominee engaged in a discussion with Mr. Raben and 
his associates after--after--her nomination was announced. This sort of 
contact between liberal nominees and liberal handlers doesn't fit with 
the Senate Democrats' idea of dark money influence as simply a 
conservative pastime.
  So it is hardly surprising that senior members of the Judiciary 
Committee's majority haven't found time to scrutinize Ms. Sooknanan 
with the sort of vigor they devote to tarring organizers for 
conservative causes.
  Of course, maybe Senate Democrats actually support Ms. Sooknanan's 
legal defense of so-called vulture funds as they cut to the front of 
the line of Puerto Rico's creditors.
  One Democratic House Member from New York says the success makes her 
nomination ``an insult to the people of Puerto Rico.'' Ah, but what 
does she know?
  Or maybe they agree with Ms. Sooknanan's supposedly conservative 
former law firm that she didn't disparage the former President's 
election-litigation efforts on a conference call and that the New York 
Times is simply lying when they say that she did.
  It just doesn't add up, unless the real ledger being used is the one 
with liberal dark money from Robert Raben and Arabella Advisors.