More Bad News For Bush’s Judicial Nominee

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


What with his deep connections to Dick Cheney and the endorsement of lots of home-state Republicans, Gus Puryear IV should have been a shoe-in for his nomination to a federal trial court in Tennessee. But not only has Puryear run into trouble over his membership in an exclusive country club, but this week, Time magazine and the Tennessean have both published critical stories about him alleging that he abused the attorney-client privilege to prevent the release of damaging information about his employer, the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest private prison company.

A former CCA employee has written to the Senate Judiciary Committee outlining his allegations that Puryear tried to prevent employees from giving other government entities the full details about prison riots, unexplained deaths and other negative events to which they were entitled, for fear that the information could be used in lawsuits or that it might threaten the company’s government contracts. If true, it’s not a pretty picture, and it might be damaging enough to make Puryear one of the rare trial court nominees to face a bona fide confirmation fight.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate