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Associate Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh has sparked outrage after he attended a holiday party whose attendees included a number of far-right Republicans who have capitalized on the larger MAGA movement and backed former Republican President Donald Trump's lies about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election result.
The party was held on Friday, December 9, at the home of Matt Schlapp, who chairs the American Conservative Union (ACU), an organization that spearheads the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and has strong ties to the former Trump administration.
Other attendees included Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who is currently in the middle of a federal sex-trafficking investigation; Trump's former senior adviser and immigration architect Stephen Miller; former Trump White House Secretary Sean Spicer; former Trump White House official Sebastian Gorka; and New York Representative-Elect George Santos.
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Kavanaugh's attendance at the party raises questions about perceived conflicts of interest and the impropriety of a sitting Supreme Court Justice spending time in the comany of right-wing extremists.
It also comes as the Supreme Court continues to face ethics concerns following a New York Timesreport about a potential breach of opinion in 2014, this one also related to contraception and religious rights in much the same way as a leaked draft opinion which earlier this year indicated the Supreme Court would overturn the constitutional right to an abortion and years of established precedent.
Notably, the aforementioned Miller—who founded the America First Legal Foundation—has interests in cases now pending before the Supreme Court, including Moore v. Harper, which would determine the extent to which state legislatures can independently set election rules, suggesting that Republican-controlled legislatures might ignore election results and submit a fraudulent set of electors beholden to the GOP majority.
Many have harshly condemned Kavanaugh's actions.
Kavanaugh's behavior has contributed to significant controversy in Washington even before he was officially confirmed to the Supreme Court bench.
Kavanaugh's appearance at the party, particularly in the company of Gaetz, who federal authorities investigated, but have ultimately decided not to prosecute on child sex trafficking charges, also raises concerns about the company he keeps.
Republicans have long alleged Kavanaugh had his confirmation hearing nearly derailed by numerous sexual assault allegations they deemed not worth investigating.
Kavanaugh has denied ever sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the Palo Alto University professor who identified herself as the author of a then-anonymous letter alleging that he had assaulted her while at a high school party. Multiple women came forward with their own accounts after Dr. Ford's allegations emerged.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received considerable pushback in the weeks after the allegations became public in light of the limits placed upon the investigation and the knowledge that the bureau declined to interview the witnesses suggested by the attorneys for Kavanaugh's accusers. Its investigators did not interview Dr. Ford, deeming her Senate testimony sufficient.