Over a dozen complaints — some from Democratic partisan groups — about statements Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh made during his confirmation hearings were referred to federal judges in Colorado by Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday.
The 15 grievances, filed in September and early October, center on whether newly minted Justice Kavanaugh was dishonest or lacked judicial temperament when he testified before the Senate, the Washington Post reported.
One of the ethics complaints claims Kavanaugh lied about the sexual assault allegation against him, Buzzfeed News reported.
The first complaint, though, was filed Sept. 10 — before the sexual assault allegation came out — and accuses Kavanaugh of lying when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing in early September that he hadn’t received information stolen from Senate Democrats when he was working in the White House in the early 2000s.
Two of the complaints were filed by the Democratic Coalition, a political action group, the website reported. It not clear who filed the others.
The complaints initially were filed with the federal appeals court in Washington, DC, where Kavanaugh served for the last 12 years before being confirmed to the US Supreme Court on Saturday. A judge on that court asked Roberts last week to refer the complaints to another court — saying they shouldn’t be handled by the same judges who served with Kavanaugh.
The Denver-based 10th Circuit Court now handling the complaints is led by Chief Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush.
It’s unclear what will come of the review.
It’s possible the complaints will never be investigated if the lower-court judges determine the judiciary’s ethics rules don’t give them jurisdiction over a Supreme Court justice.