Trump's ghost-hunting federal judge nominee who's never tried a case may have defended the KKK online

A new investigation into the online habits of a message board user that is most likely federal judge nominee Brett Talley reveals he may have an affinity for the early aughts of the Ku Klux Klan.

According to Slate, whose reporter trawled through the 16,381 posts made by a University of Alabama fan on the TideFans.com forum (that BuzzFeed revealed is most likely Talley), the opining of the extended to defending the honor of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general believed to be the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

In a 2011 thread, one user posted about a Mississippi proposal to put Forrest on their license plate, expressing incredulity that the state would want to "honor someone who served as the first KKK Grand Wizard."

In response, user BamianBoston (who is likely Talley) responded with what Slate calls "factually dubious" history surrounding Forrest.

"Heaven forbid we let the facts get in the way of your righteous indignation, but Forrest, when he decommissioned his men, told them to make peace with the men they had fought and live as good citizens of the United States," BamianBoston wrote. "It was only after the perceived depredations of the Union army during reconstruction that Forrest joined (it is highly unlikely that he founded or acted as the Grand Wizard) the first KKK, which was entirely different than the KKK of the early 19th Century."

"When the Klan turned to racial violence, he distanced himself from the organization as he had long supported the reconciliation of the races," the user continued. "In fact, he often spoke to black organizations."

As the report notes, Forrest did order his men to follow the Union's laws after the Civil War -- but the rest of his claims appear incorrect. It also leaves out the 1864's Fort Pillow massacre, "when Forrest led his troops to a mass slaughter of black soldiers." Although it's unclear whether the general "permitted the indiscriminate killing," he did later say "that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that n*gro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners."

In 2011, when this comment was made, Talley was a court clerk for Judge Joel Dubina in the 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

As BuzzFeed noted in their revelation of the BamianBoston account, it's likely to be the nominee's because in 2014, the user posted a link to a profile about Talley with the caption "Washington Post Did A Feature On Me."