Wash. Justice Denies Heckling Mukasey Immediately Before AG's Collapse
Updated: A Washington Supreme Court justice accused of heckling U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey before his collapse says he wasn’t in the room at the time the AG went down.
Michelle Malkin is among the bloggers reporting on a rumor that the state justice, Richard Sanders, had shouted “tyrant” before Mukasey fainted during a speech last Thursday. “I dearly hope this is not true,” Malkin had written.
Sanders told The Olympian the rumor is, indeed, not true—at least the part about shouting right before Mukasey collapsed.
Sanders said he went back to his hotel before Mukasey fainted at the Federalist Society event. He did not comment directly on the heckling report. “As to that, I don’t have any comment,” he told The Olympian. “But I wasn’t there when he collapsed. I heard it on television the next morning. I was very sorry to hear it.”
Sanders elaborated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, which reports that the person shouting “tyrant” did so about 15 minutes before Mukasey’s collapse. Sanders didn’t do much to clarify whether he was the shouter.
He told the Law Blog that after reviewing a video of the speech, “it doesn’t appear that whatever was said was heard by [Attorney] General Mukasey. I left the dinner before the [attorney] general unfortunately collapsed.” He added that “in my mind, a heckler is someone who is making repeated comments audible to the speaker, [and] you’ll see that that just didn’t happen.”
Sanders also e-mailed Malkin, giving a similar account of not being around when Mukasey collapsed, she reports on her blog. She e-mailed back to ask specifically if he had heckled the attorney general, but did not get an immediate reply.
Mukasey was back at work the next day. He said tests during an overnight hospital stay came back with good results.
Sanders did tell the Law Blog he does disagree with some White House policies and Mukasey was a “good soldier in the Bush administration.” In a recent article, he compared the war on terrorism to a war on liberty.
Updated at 10:12 a.m. CT to add Sanders’ comments to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and at noon to add his comments to Michelle Malkin.
