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There were so many issues involving stolen emails and perjury and torture and war crimes going on in Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings last week that senators didn't have an opportunity to get around to a major question about what might point to some personal financial issues: how in the world did he rack up as much as $200,000 in credit card debt in one year by buying tickets to Washington Nationals baseball games and paying for "home improvements"? Also, how was he able to suddenly pay it all off in 2017?
In his financial disclosure forms for 2016, Kavanaugh reported having between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt on three credit cards which each had balances between $15,000 and $50,000, and on a personal loan between $15,000 to $50,000. The disclosure forms don't require specific amounts—just ranges. Season seats can go for as much as $6,000 apiece behind the dugouts, so it's entirely possible that he bought a minimum of four seats in four sets on different cards—three times on his credit cards, and once with the loan.
Weird. But even weirder is how in 2017 all the debt was miraculously gone or "fell below the reporting requirements." The White House contends that all the friends he was buying season tickets for paid him back, eventually, and he stopped buying the tickets. Friends who can afford season tickets to professional baseball don't let friends carry as much as $200,000 in interest-accruing credit card debt.
All this sounds fishy to at least one senator, and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has questions. They include: How did he accrue as much as $180,000 in debt between 2015 and 2016, how much exactly did he owe, and how much specifically to each creditor? Did the White House know about this debt when he was nominated, and are officials being truthful now in explaining it? How many seasons has he bought tickets for? How many and for how much did he buy them each year, and how much did they cost? Who were these friends and what financial arrangement did he have with each of them for repayment? Were the tickets meant to pay back debts to any of these friends (and if so, give the specifics)? How much of his debt was home improvement and what projects did he do, and when? How much of the debt was due to baseball tickets? What other sources of personal and household debt did he have from 2015-18, specifically? And, are there any other creditors he owes, "private or otherwise," that haven't been reported?
This does come in service to one of Whitehouse's ends: finding out what was going on in one of those email chains that Democrats forced to be released that show Kavanaugh joking with friends and/or associates. But more to the point, Whitehouse wonders: Does Kavanaugh perhaps have a bit of a gambling problem?
Whitehouse writes, "After a reunion with friends in September 2001, you emailed: 'Apologies to all for missing Friday (good excuse), and growing aggressive after blowing still another game of dice (don't recall). Reminders to everyone to be very, very vigilant w/r/t confidentiality on all issues and all fronts including with spouses,'" and he wants to know more. Like whether he's "participated in any form of gambling or game of chance or skill with monetary stakes" since 2000, and if so, provide all the details of who, when, where, and how much lost/won. Also, whether he has a regular poker game and all the same details. And the very specific, "Have you ever gambled or accrued gambling debt in the State of New Jersey?"
Kavanaugh should have to answer all of those questions for Whitehouse before the Judiciary Committee votes—or not, since the committee isn't doing anything that it's supposed to when it comes to this nomination. Chairman Chuck Grassley will undoubtedly do his damnedest to ram the nomination through before there's a full accounting from Kavanaugh on this or on any of the outstanding issues—like the hundreds of thousands of documents about his career that are still being withheld.