Former president Donald Trump has hired a retired California appeals court judge who left his position following allegations of sexual harassment to represent him in his legal battle against Twitter.
Former judge Alex Kozinski was a judge in the 9th Circuit Appeals Court in California. Kosinski filed to appear in Trump’s appeal of a trial court order dismissing a lawsuit against Twitter over Trump’s ban from the social media platform after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol.
The lead lawyer on the Trump case is John Coale, who said Kosinski was brought onto the team to help because of his experience with the 9th Circuit.
The 9th Circuit is the federal appeals court that covers much of the western United States.
Kozinski retired from the court in 2017 after the court initiated an investigation into him following allegations of misconduct from former law clerks and other junior staffers.
Amid the allegations, Kozinski resigned from the court.
He said at the time that remaining as a judge would be a distraction to the federal judiciary. He waved off the allegations by claiming he has a “broad sense of humor”, saying that he might not have been “mindful enough of the special challenges and pressures that women face in the workplace.”
Two years later in 2019, Kozinski returned to the 9th Circuit representing the plaintiff in a case over alleged copyright infringement in the film “The Shape of Water.” In 2021 the parties agreed to dismiss the case.
He also was part of the lawyer team in a Los Angeles federal court that sued Paramount Pictures Corp last month in June for alleged copyright infringement over “Top Gun: Maverick.” Paramount says the claims are without merit.
Last year Trump filed lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook, and Alphabet’s Google after they banned him from using their platforms after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
U.S. District Judge James Donato dismissed the lawsuit against Twitter in May, rejecting Trump’s claim that the ban violates his First Amendment freedom of speech.
Twitter said at the time that it had permanently removed Trump’s account because his tweets violated the platform’s policy barring “glorification of violence.”
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