On Monday evening, Donald Trump announced his nominee to serve on the Supreme Court as the replacement for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump showered Judge Brett Kavanaugh with praise and claimed he was the most qualified candidate for the job.
But it now appears that questions about Kavanaugh’s personal finances may wind up sinking his nomination before he even appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Washington Post reports:
“In 2016, Kavanaugh reported having between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt accrued over three credit cards and a loan. Each credit card held between $15,000 and $50,000 in debt, and a Thrift Savings Plan loan was between $15,000 and $50,000.
“The credit card debts and loan were either paid off or fell below the reporting requirements in 2017, according to the filings, which do not require details on the nature or source of such payments. [White House spokesman Raj Shah] told The Post that Kavanaugh’s friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets and that the judge has since stopped purchasing the season tickets.”
But that explanation from the White House likely won’t be enough to stop the endless questions which are raised by this latest disclosure. As Luke Darby of GQ notes:
“There are a lot of impediments to determining a judge’s net worth from public records, and the Post points out that for that reason it’s an easy thing to undervalue. But a sudden cash infusion of potentially $200,000 is noteworthy and the kind of thing that merits vetting.”
No one cares if Kavanaugh bought a bunch of tickets to see the Washington Nationals and gifted them to his buddies. But as Eric Lach of the New Yorker was quick to wonder, this entire matter raises much larger questions:
Senate Democrats have been looking for ways they can question the choice of Kavanaugh for the nation’s highest court, and they may have found it:
“The Post’s analysis suggests that this may be another source of questioning as Kavanaugh gets set for what could be a grueling confirmation process. This also wouldn’t be the first of Trump’s nominees (or Trump himself) to face scrutiny over financial disclosure forms — it seems to be somewhat of a running theme of the administration.”
Being so deeply in debt would also suggest that Kavanaugh could have been an ideal target for blackmailing if the real reason for his debts wound up being something more embarrassing than baseball tickets. Can the judge prove he went into debt buying tickets? Does he have proof of the repayments allegedly made by his friends?
Sounds like Judge Kavanaugh has a lot of questions he needs to answer, and fast.