I don’t know which is more weird: That Trump’s pick for a federal district judge in Alabama has never tried a case in his life, or that Trump’s pick for a federal district judge in Alabama has never tried a case in his life, but has gone on ghost hunts.

Wut?

Yeah. The guy was apparently part of some paranormal research group, and has even written books about it.

Brett Talley said he was part of The Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group between 2009 and 2010, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire obtained by The Daily Beast. The group says on its website it is “searching for the truth of the paranormal existence” and helps those who may be “living with paranormal activity that can be disruptive and/or traumatic.”

Who ya gonna call?

David Higdon, founder of the group says that a normal operation is going into a spooky house at around 7pm, maybe staying until 6am, and stay up all night to see if they can pick up on any ghostly shenanigans.

“If we go into a private house, we mainly try and debunk what’s going on,” he told The Daily Beast.

Oh. Ok.

One of the books Talley co-authored with Higdon is called, “Haunted Tuscaloosa.”

“In the pages of this book, you will hear tales of haunted houses and shadows moving through university buildings,” the authors wrote in the book. “We will enter abandoned insane asylums, antebellum homes and ancient cemeteries. We will review stories of long-dead Civil War soldiers, of women driven insane by the death of loves and of some leading lights of Tuscaloosa who still walk in the massive homes they constructed.”

Sounds like the kind of stuff I used to eat up when I was a kid. I loved spooky tales.

Still do, actually, but let’s keep this stuff in context.

Mitt Romney’s former campaign manager, Stuart Stevens is apparently aware of Talley’s moonlighting activities, and chimed in.

“He has a cult following,” Stevens said. “I have to say I wasn’t really aware he was a lawyer as my dealings with him were as a writer on campaign. He’s an interesting, smart guy. But so is Stephen King.”

Maybe that’s what drew Trump to him. The whole “cult following” thing.

That, and maybe Stephen King wasn’t available to step in as a federal district judge in Alabama.

I mean, either it was that, or the fact that his wife is Ann Donaldson, chief of staff of White House counsel.

She’s also a lawyer who was interviewed as part of Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russian investigation.

Talley neglected to include that tidbit in his questionnaire, when asked if there were any potential conflicts of interests in him taking the position.

Of note is that the American Bar Association has deemed Talley unqualified to serve as a federal district judge.

Perhaps the American Bar Association missed the entirety of last year’s election season. “Qualified” means something completely different, now.

Plus, the guy probably has some really sweet ghost hunting tales to tell from the bench.