Rudolph Contreras


Rudolph Contreras is a United States District judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He also serves as a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
In December 2017 he briefly presided over the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, accepting Flynn's guilty plea, but was later recused from the case.

Early life and education

Contreras was born in 1962 in Miami, Florida, to Cuban immigrant parents and raised in Miami. He received a Bachelor of Science from Florida State University in 1984 and a Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1991.

Federal judicial service

On July 28, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Contreras to fill a vacancy on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to replace Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, who took senior status in 2011. On October 4, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on his nomination and on October 3, 2011, reported his nomination to the floor of the Senate. On March 22, 2012, the Senate confirmed Contreras in a voice vote. He received his commission on March 23, 2012.
In April 2016 Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Contreras to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a term starting May 19, 2016.

Notable cases

On November 17, 2016, Contreras dismissed a lawsuit against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seeking to compel a vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland.
In 2017 Contreras was randomly assigned the case of United States of America v. Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump. The two-page indictment was released on December 1, 2017. Contreras accepted Flynn's guilty plea to one count of making false statements to the FBI in the course of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The guilty plea was part of a plea bargain with the Special Counsel investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III. On December 7, 2017, Contreras was recused from further sentencing hearings scheduled to take place in the future. The case was randomly reassigned to District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.
According to several reputable sources, text messages show that Peter Strzok, a veteran FBI counterintelligence official who worked on the Flynn case as part of Mueller's team, knew Contreras.