The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has a photo of Judge Alison J. Nathan.
US District Court Judge Alison Nathan is presiding over the child-sex-trafficking trial.
President Barack Obama appointed Nathan as a judge in 2011.
Her legal career included private practice, academia, and a stint in the Obama White House.
Carolyn testified that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her on more than 100 occasions, beginning when she was 14 years old, and that Ghislaine Maxwell set up her meetings with the financier and participated in some of the abuse.
Carolyn was grilled over every tiny detail of her testimony, drawing out perceived discrepancies in her story. The prosecutors shouted "Objection!" to several of the questions. Carolyn, who testified using only her first name, was objected to by some of the prosecutors' questioning, trying to limit the scope of what she could tell jurors.
US District Judge Alison J. Nathan admonished both sides after court ended.
Nathan said that no more communicating to the witnesses or the jury via objections has been done. Understood?
Nathan is the referee and he decides what evidence the jury can look at. She doesn't have any patience for drama.
The most high-profile case Nathan has presided over to date is the trial of Maxwell. She's been restrained on the bench.
Prosecutors have accused Maxwell of sex-trafficking girls with her, sexually abusing them herself, and lying about her actions in a deposition. She has pleaded not guilty.
Nathan will be up for a promotion soon.
She is preparing for a confirmation vote as Nathan presides over the trial. She was selected for a promotion to the US Court Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Joe Biden.
Nathan would be the second openly LGBTQ woman to serve on a federal circuit court, after Second Circuit Judge Beth Robinson, who was also nominated by Biden and confirmed to her position in November. Nathan and her partner have twin sons, according to The Advocate.
Judge Alison J. Nathan and Ghislaine Maxwell are shown in a courtroom sketch.
When Barack Obama nominated Nathan to serve in the Southern District of New York, she became a judge. Nathan was appointed as special counsel to the New York Attorney General at the time of her nomination.
Nathan's nomination was largely ignored until conservative groups staged last-minute challenges, The Advocate reported at the time. Nathan didn't have a rating from the American Bar Association to be a judge. According to Gay City News, an ABA panel gave Nathan mostly "qualified" as opposed to "well qualified" ratings, with a minority saying she was "unqualified."
Schumer defended Nathan, who was put forward for the job. Schumer said that Nathan's lower rating had more to do with her young age than anything else, and pointed out that when 33 of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees had the same rating, it wasn't a problem.
Sources told The Advocate that Nathan's political activism called into question her impartiality and judicial temperament. They were unhappy with Nathan's pro bono work for clients who tried to challenge the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for gay service members. Nathan wrote about the death penalty and lethal injection methods in 2008 and they could be "needlessly cruel."
Nathan was confirmed by a narrow 48-44 vote despite the 11th hour challenge.
From private practice to the White House.
Nathan's career had progressed from private practice to academia before she was nominated to the federal judiciary.
She spent two years in prestigious clerkships after graduating from Cornell Law School. She specialized in federal litigation and constitutional law at the elite law firm of the same name, where she worked for Robert Muller and Ken Salazar.
While on a four-month leave from WilmerHale in 2004, Nathan got some of her first political work, as a volunteer legal advisor for John Kerry's failed presidential bid. Nathan taught at the New York University School of Law for two years and then at the Fordham University School of Law for another year.
After working for a year as an associate White House counsel, Nathan returned to New York with her family in 2010 to join the Solicitor General's office.
Nathan denied a request from Harvey Weinstein.
Nathan has presided over a number of high-profile cases since becoming a judge, including shutting down Harvey Weinstein's attempts to get an emergency appeal.
The motion was made by Weinstein's lawyers in connection to a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who said Weinstein sexually assault her after encouraging her to meet him in France. Weinstein's lawyers argued that the case should be appealed in the Second Circuit Court because a previous judge made a mistake in categorizing the incident as sex trafficking.
Nathan said his ruling was convincing. She ruled that the accuser's case could move forward, even though Weinstein had to go through a slower appeals process.
Nathan forced Musk to meet with the SEC.
Nathan's most high-profile case before the Maxwell trial was that of billionaire Musk. The Securities and Exchange Commission started investigating allegations that Musk misled investors by saying he was considering taking the company private. Musk agreed to have his statements overseen by the lawyers of the company.
The SEC accused Musk of violating the agreement when he bragged about how many cars he would produce in 2019.
After Nathan ordered Musk to meet with the SEC for at least an hour to resolve the issue, the two parties came up with a new agreement that specified which financial milestones and other events Musk couldn't post about.
Musk said he had great respect for Judge Nathan.
The original article is on Insider.
