Trump’s Sister Retires, Highlighting Judge Misconduct Loophole

Maryanne Trump Barry’s quiet retirement earlier this year from a federal appeals court short-circuited a judicial ethics investigation, allowing the president’s older sister to dodge potentially serious consequences such as loss of full retirement benefits, reports Bloomberg Law.

The former Third Circuit judge faced the civil probe into whether she and her siblings, including her brother Donald, benefited from alleged tax schemes linked to her late father, according to Bloomberg’s Melissa Heelan Stanzione. Four complaints of judicial misconduct were filed in October of 2018. At the time, Barry, now 82, was semi-retired and not hearing cases.

“The treatment of her case is not without recent precedent, and raises questions about a loophole in the conduct code for federal judges that allows them to avoid scrutiny by stepping down,” writes Stanzione.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.