Three months after Brett Kavanaugh tearfully proclaimed that being questioned about the sexual-assault allegations against him would have “consequences for decades,” he’s continuing to do just fine.
On Tuesday, a federal panel of judges dismissed all 83 ethics complaints brought against Kavanaugh, many of which were related to statements he made during his confirmation hearings in September. According to NPR, the judges concluded that, even though the complaints are “serious,” lower court judges don’t have the authority to investigate or discipline Kavanaugh now that he’s on the Supreme Court.
The earliest complaints, CNN reports, include allegations that Kavanaugh lied about the George W. Bush administration’s anti-terrorism policies while he was assistant White House counsel and secretary to the president.
But most of the ethics complaints were about his conduct at his confirmation hearings, when he testified regarding Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that he had sexually assaulted her.
According to CNN, one said that Kavanaugh’s emotional and angry testimony was “evasive, aggressive and condescending,” adding, “When questioned by female senators he acted like a bully, often interrupting and improperly posing questions to his interrogator.” He was also accused of misrepresenting his history of drinking.
He may be one of the least-supported justices of all time, but Kavanaugh can now go on with his life-tenured seat on the Supreme Court with all ethics complaints dropped. In the past few months, he’s also resumed his position as a girls’ basketball coach — despite his furious insistence during the hearings that he might never coach again “thanks to what some of you on the committee have unleashed” — and received a “hero’s welcome” at his old prep school.
In the meantime, since accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford has faced death threats so intense that she’s had to hire private security and move houses four times.
