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JUDGE WYNN RESCINDS RETIREMENT;
ANGERS SENS. TILLIS AND BUDD
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is not pleased with U.S. Fourth Circuit Appeals Judge James Wynn these days.
Judge Wynn, 70, appointed to the Circuit Court by President Barack Obama in 2010, was all set to retire from the bench last month, until the election of Pres.-elect Donald Trump changed his plans. Outgoing Pres. Biden had already selected Judge Wynn’s replacement on the Fourth Circuit, when all of a sudden, u.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans struck a deal that ultimately blocked the nomination on Wynn’s replacement, substituting instead a judicial candidate of Pres.-elect Trump’s.
Apparently in a move to stymie any deal that would have a Trump nominee replace him, Judge Wynn wrote a letter to Pres. Biden last month, telling the Democratic president, “I write to advise that after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in regular active service as a United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit.”
‘I respectfully withdraw my letter to you from January 4, 2024. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
So why is Sen. Thom Tillis upset?
Tillis, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was looking forward to replacing Judge Wynn with a Trump nominee. Both he and North Carolina’s junior Sen. Tedd Budd (R-NC) had already planned to block the nomination of North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park to the Wynn seat. Tillis charged that Park was a “partisan” who shouldn’t be allowed to serve as a judge. Sen. Tillis even threatened the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that if Park’s nomination was allowed to reach the Senate floor for approval, “there would be consequences.”
Democrats on the committee called Tillis’ bluff. But before Parks’ name could reach the Senate floor, Senate Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to kill four of the Biden Administration’s appellate nominations, in return for Republicans easing up on their opposition.
That’s when Judge Wynn decided to make his move, and rescinded his announced retirement from the Fourth Circuit bench.
Tillis was furious, noting that Judge Wynn was among several federal judges who had rescinded their announced retirements as to put a halt to Trump getting any more Republican judges to fill the federal bench.
“Judge Wynn clearly takes issue with the fact that Donald Trump was just elected President, and this decision is a slap in the face to the U.S. Senate, which came to a bipartisan agreement to hold off on confirming his replacement until the next Congress is sworn-in in January,” Tillis wrote, adding that Wynn’s move was “brazenly partisan” and “Judge Wynn’s brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes.”
“The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on his blatant attempt to turn the judicial retirement system into a partisan game, and he deserves the ethics complaints and recusal demands from the Department of Justice heading his way,” Tillis continued.
Prior to serving on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Wynn served on the NC. Court of appeals from 1990 to 1998, and from 1999 to 2010. Wynn served on the state Supreme Court for three months in 1998.
In the meantime, Solicitor Parks withdrew his name from consideration for the Fourth Circuit Court.
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CRYSTAL MANGUM
IT WAS ALL A LIE” ADMITS
DURHAM DUKE LACROSSE
ACCUSER 18 YEARS LATER
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The black woman who, in March, 2006, caused a national media frenzy when she alleged she was raped, beaten and sodomized by three white Duke University lacrosse players during a wild team party in Durham, now confesses for the first time in eighteen years that she was lying because she “wanted validation from people and not from God.”
Crystal Mangum, 46, made her admission on the podcast, “Let’s Talk with Kat”which aired on December 11th.
On the program, Mangum, who was one of two black females hired as “exotic dancers” for the party, admitted that she falsely accused David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann of the crime of trapping her in a bathroom in a house near Duke’s east campus on Buchanan Blvd. That structure, once owned by the university, has since been torn down.
All three accused attackers vigorously denied her charges, as did their families. But because of the prominence of the Duke University name, and the torrid history of race and sex in the South, Ms. Mangum’s accusations gained editorial traction, especially after many black leaders questioned why a predominately-white lacrosse team would hire poor black females to perform lewd acts for them during a private team party.
Durham police investigated the claims at the time, and then Durham Attorney Mike Nifong falsely confirmed that he had “evidence” that Mangum was telling the truth. In fact, Nifong had no such evidence, and the case was taken over by then state Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Nifong was forced later to leave office in disgrace.
Ultimately, there was never any proof that Mangum had been raped by the three players. All three sued because of the false accusations.
Ms. Mangum was later arrested and charged with the stabbing death of her then-boyfriend in 2011, and has been serving time in prison for the crime since. She is scheduled for release from the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women on Feb. 27, 2026.
Mangum says she spends a lot of her time in prison reading the Bible, and hopes that the players she falsely accused can one day find it in themselves to forgive her.
“And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” she says.
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