Last September, NBC announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be taking over the “Celebrity Apprentice” franchise as the reality show’s new host. Original host Donald Trump had been fired after the network disapproved of his controversial remarks regarding illegal immigrants.
Now the actor is defending a federal judge who’s come under attack by Mr. Schwarzenegger’s reality-show predecessor, a fellow Republican.
“Judge [Gonzalo P.] Curiel is an American hero who stood up to the Mexican cartels. I was proud to appoint him when I was Gov.,” tweeted Mr. Schwarzenegger on Monday, referring to a federal district judge whom Mr. Trump has maligned as biased.
As governor, Mr. Schwarzenegger “appointed Curiel in 2006 to the state superior court, where he spent six years before ascending to the federal court,” CNN.com explained Monday.
Judge Curiel is presiding over a civil case involving Trump University, a now-defunct real-estate seminar venture launched by Mr. Trump in 2005.
In his tweet, Mr. Schwarzenegger linked to a New York Times story from June 3 headlined, “That Judge Attacked by Donald Trump? He’s Faced a Lot Worse.”
“For much of a year, Gonzalo P. Curiel, then a federal prosecutor in California, lived officially in hiding,” The Times reported. “He hunkered down for a while on a naval base and in other closely guarded locations under the protection of United States marshals. Even his siblings did not know exactly where he was at times.”
The Times went on to explain why Judge Curiel was placed in protection custody: “In a secretly taped conversation inside a San Diego prison, a man accused of being a gunman for a Mexican drug cartel said that he had received permission from his superiors to have Mr. Curiel assassinated.”
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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