(@nycsouthpaw is a lawyer and writer, followed on Twitter by the likes of President Obama, Josh Marshall, Ezra Klein, Meteor Blades and yours truly. His real name is Luppe B. Luppen and he writes this article about Kavanaugh’s finances at everyone’s favorite Yahoo News)
Democrats may question Kavanaugh’s personal finances:
WASHINGTON — As Brett Kavanaugh enters his second day of contentious confirmation hearings for his nomination to the Supreme Court, he could face questions about his finances on subjects ranging from baseball tickets to the down payment for his home.
Some key questions that Luppe says need answers...
- How did Kavanaugh manage to come up with the down payment on his $1.2 million home in Chevy Chase, Md., in 2006 without apparently drawing any significant amount of money from his reported bank accounts between 2005 and 2007? A down payment on the home in the range of 10 to 20 percent would, of course, have required Kavanaugh to put down between $120,000 and $240,000 in cash. Through 2005, 2006, and 2007, however, Kavanaugh reports a range of $10,000 and $50,000 in his bank accounts.
- Why did Kavanaugh’s bank account balances at least double between 2008 and 2009, rising from a disclosed range of $15,000 to $50,000 in 2008 to a range of $100,000 to $250,000 in 2009? Non-investment income included on the disclosure reports only lists an honorarium from Harvard in an amount insufficient to explain the change.
- Why doesn’t Kavanaugh list a 2014 delayed cost of living adjustment given to all federal judges (approximately a $150,000 lump sum in Kavanaugh’s case) as income?
There are other questions in the article, including how did Kavanaugh’s credit card balance of approximately $150,000 in 2016 get wiped clean in 2017, and, if it was his buddies buying back season tickets to Baltimore Orioles games ...who were these unknown fans?
Kavanaugh’s retrograde opinions on choice and executive despotism are despicable but not crimes.
As Deepthroat of Watergate fame said:
Follow the money.