A former producer on the hit crime drama “Law & Order” mocked one of President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE’s judicial nominees for being unable to answer basic legal questions during a Senate hearing.

William N. Fordes, who served as co-executive producer of “Law and Order” from 1991 to 2012, said in a letter to The New York Times that Matthew Petersen’s answers to questions during his Senate hearing were “appalling.”

“The appalling performance by Matthew Petersen, one of President Trump’s judicial nominees, in response to the withering questioning by Senator John Kennedy John Neely KennedyMORE [R-La.] is inexcusable in this day and age, whatever the limitations of Mr. Petersen’s legal schooling and past experience,” Fordes wrote. “For while the television series ‘Law and Order’ has been off the air for several years, it is in almost constant syndicated rerun.”

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“Had Mr. Petersen watched even a few episodes, he almost certainly would have known what a motion 'in limine' is, and what the various abstention doctrines are,” Fordes continued. “Shame on Mr. Petersen for not having attended the universal law school of the airwaves that was ‘Law and Order.’”

A video of Kennedy’s questioning of Petersen, during which he was unable to define various basic legal terms, went viral last week.

Petersen, who was nominated to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, withdrew his nomination on Monday in a letter to Trump.

“I had hoped my nearly two decades of public service might carry more weight than my two worst minutes on television,” he wrote. “However, I am no stranger to political realities, and I do not wish to be a continued distraction from the important work of your Administration and the Senate.”

Kennedy later defended his line of questioning, saying he asks “questions that I expect them to be able to answer.”

Petersen became the third Trump judicial nominee to have his nomination withdrawn in recent weeks.