A Democrat Representative from Kentucky is alleging that President Joe Biden will appoint a conservative lawyer to a federal judgeship in the state as part of a shadowy deal with House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY) told the Courier-Journal that he believes the nomination is part of an undisclosed deal between Biden and McConnell to ensure bipartisan support for Biden’s future judicial nominees.

“Given that a judicial position isn’t currently open on the Eastern District Court, it’s clear that this is part of some larger deal on judicial nominations between the president and Mitch McConnell,” Yarmuth told the paper, which first reported the pending nomination.

Chad Meredith, the nominee, formerly served as Kentucky’s solicitor general on a number of cases including those restricting abortion access and fighting against COVID-19 mandates.

Meredith represented former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin in his legal fight against an abortion clinic, arguing that clinics should have written transfer agreements with full-service hospital and ambulance services in case of emergencies, according to the Associated Press.

At the time, he said if the law “results in no abortion clinics, fantastic”. He also argued that the impact of such a scenario would be “essentially none” for women since Kentucky’s geographical location means there are out-of-state clinics within 150 miles.

He also successfully stripped Democrat Governor Andy Beshear’s powers to implement sweeping COVID-19 emergency measures, defending a law before Kentucky’s Supreme Court.

Neither the White House nor McConnell’s office have responded to requests for comments at this time.

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