The Washington Post is reporting that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has received more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints in recent weeks against Brett M. Kavanaugh and held them until Kavanaugh was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice on Saturday, and not to referring them to a judicial panel for investigation as they should have been.
Sources say the Judge, Karen LeCraft Henderson, who sits on the court on which Kavanaugh serves — passed on to Roberts a string of complaints the court received starting three weeks ago.
In a statement Saturday, Henderson said the complaints centered on untruthful statements Kavanaugh made during his Senate confirmation hearings.
Under the law, “any person may file a misconduct complaint in the circuit in which the federal judge sits,” she said in the statement. The complaints seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
People familiar with the matter say the allegations made in the complaints — that Kavanaugh was dishonest and lacked judicial temperament during his Senate testimony.
Roberts’s decision not to immediately refer the cases to another appeals court has caused concern in the legal community. Now that he has been confirmed, the details of the complaints may not become public and instead may be dismissed, legal experts say. Supreme Court justices are not subject to the misconduct rules governing these claims.
Kathleen Arberg, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, declined to comment, citing judicial rules requiring confidentiality for misconduct complaints.
Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, has for many years hired Kavanaugh clerks to work for him at the Supreme Court. Bush credits Kavanaugh in his book with helping him choose Roberts for the high court when Kavanaugh was a White House lawyer.
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