Politics & Government

More suspense for Trump’s pick: Supreme Court finalists have identical Twitter pages

By Brian Murphy

bmurphy@mcclatchy.com

January 31, 2017 05:09 PM

President Donald Trump announced Neil Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch is a U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals judge. He was born in Denver and is 49 years old. He’s the youngest Supreme Cour

President Donald Trump knows how to build suspense.

Trump, who hosted 14 seasons of reality TV shows “The Apprentice” and “The Celebrity Apprentice,” will announce his nominee for the Supreme Court at 8 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday — promising a primetime audience on the East Coast for the big reveal.

Both reported finalists Judge Thomas Hardiman, a member of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Neil Gorsuch, a member of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, are traveling to Washington, D.C. It’s one way to avoid tipping off who the actual pick will be.

And now there’s this: Both judges have identical Twitter accounts with bios that call them “Nominee for Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Here’s @JusticeHardiman and @JusticeGorsuch.

Each account was set up recently, has tweeted the same three tweets and follows the same five people — @realDonaldTrump, @POTUS, @VP, @WhiteHouse and @PressSec.

It is not clear who established the Twitter accounts.

January 31, 2017
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If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Hardiman or Gorsuch will take the vacant seat formerly occupied by Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia served on the Supreme Court from 1986 until his death in 2016.

President Barack Obama nominated a replacement last year, but Senate Republicans refused to give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing. They argued the winner of the presidential election should nominate Scalia’s replacement. Some Democrats have similarly sworn to block Trump’s pick.