is here. You don’t see these often for sitting federal judges. I assume that, if Judge Kent doesn’t resign, a criminal conviction would be followed promptly by impeachment by the House and then conviction and removal by the Senate. An interesting question is what would happen if Judge Kent is acquitted, but there is sufficient evidence to believe he was likely guilty (the Justice Department obviously believes this to be the case), but not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of a criminal jury. But that’s all a hypothetical at this point.
UPDATE: Sorry; I should have made this clearer — certainly the Congress has the power to remove someone who has been acquitted, and I don’t see anything wrong with it, if the Representatives and the Senators think he’s guilty. As commenter David Nieporent pointed out, that of course is what happened to former Judge (now Congressman) Alcee Hastings. What I was wondering was what the Congress would (not may) do if they thought the accusation wasn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but was still likely true — not an implausible scenario if the case ends up mostly being a swearing contest between Judge Kent and the woman he is accused of attacking.
There’s also the question of what the Congress should do in such a situation; I think it should remove the judge from office — “better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent man go to prison” may be a sensible rule, but I don’t think that “better that ten guilty judges remain in office than one innocent judge be erroneously removed” is equally sensible.