Ashcroft Distorted Record, Judge Says 'Fair Play' for All at Issue in Hearing

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WASHINGTON -- A black Missouri judge said yesterday that John Ashcroft "seriously distorted my record" to block the judge's appointment to a federal court in what Senate Democrats claimed was a bid for political gain.

"The question for the Senate is whether these misrepresentations are consistent with the fair play and justice you all would require of the U.S. attorney general," Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ashcroft, the nominee for attorney general, was a Missouri senator seeking re-election when he engineered the party-line 1999 defeat of the federal nomination for White, the first black judge on Missouri's highest court. That vote, the first defeat of a district court …