Donald Trump appoints Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court

THIS man was just nominated for one of the most powerful roles in America. Now he could make Donald Trump invincible.

Gavin Fernando and wires 10, 20181:56pm

Trump announces Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh2:17

Trump announces Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh

This man could make Donald Trump invincible in the White House.Source:AP

DONALD Trump has nominated a man to the US Supreme Court who could have a big influence over whether or not the President faces charges in the Russia probe.

Mr Trump announced conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh as his pick to take a seat on the court this afternoon, with the President describing the nomination as an “honour and privilege”.

The 53-year-old Yale graduate said he was “deeply honoured” to have been selected for the job, telling Mr Trump that he was “grateful” and “humbled by your confidence in me”.

You might think conservative Trump supporters would be sweating over the new appointment because Mr Kavanaugh is the man whose investigation led to president Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the 1990s.

Today, Mr Trump is dealing with a sweeping investigation into whether his team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

There’s also his ongoing lawsuit over Mr Trump ’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, which Mr Trump has repeatedly denied took place.

Could Mr Trump face the same fate as Mr Clinton? Hold tight. There’s a little more to it than that.


Almost 20 years ago, Mr Kavanaugh advocated for the impeachment of then president Bill Clinton for “lying to his staff and misleading the public”.

The judge led a three-month investigation between December 1998 and February 1999 into Mr Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

If Mr Trump is found to have lied over his campaign’s dealings with Russia or over his relationship with Stormy Daniels, the Clinton precedent shows he could be in trouble.

In 1999, Brett Kavanaugh advocated for the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton for ’lying to his staff and misleading the public’.


White House officials told The New York Times that Mr Trump was aware of Mr Kavanaugh’s views on impeachment, but said these wouldn’t affect his potential candidacy.

While Mr Trump has repeatedly denied that he or his administration colluded with Russians, however there is evidence to suggest the President’s team had repeated contacts with Kremlin-linked operatives.

Mr Trump’s supporters therefore fear what may happen if Democrats apply pressure to the incoming Supreme Court judge over the investigation.

Only it may not matter.

The judge has since changed his mind on impeachment, writing that he doesn’t believe presidents should have to deal with criminal investigations or civil lawsuits while in office.

In 2009 — a decade after leading the investigation against Mr Clinton — Mr Kavanaugh wrote that charging a sitting president would “cripple” the federal government and “would ill-serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis”.



In other words, Mr Kavanaugh is now of the view that Mr Trump should not need to answer any charges against him until his presidential term is over.

The judge suggested he may have made a “mistake” in going after Mr Clinton in the late 1990s, saying “the nation certainly would have been better off if President Clinton could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots”.

He even advocated for a law that would protect a sitting president from lawsuits while serving in office.

Could Brett Kavanaugh protect Donald Trump from impeachment?

Could Brett Kavanaugh protect Donald Trump from impeachment?Source:AFP

Mr Kavanaugh did also note that a law-breaking president would need to be held accountable. “A second possible concern is that the country needs a check against a bad-behaving or law-breaking president,” he wrote. “But the constitution already provides that check. If the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available.”

But what constitutes “dastardly”? And does the judge’s definition of the term even matter?

Mr Kavanaugh stressed in 2015 that it was important not to be a partisan.

“Check those political allegiances at the door when you become a judge,” he said in 2015 in a speech at Catholic University’s law school.

It will take up to three months before the judge’s nomination is confirmed, which could see Mr Kavanaugh on the court by early October.

A date for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is yet to be set.

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