The Education of Brett Kavanaugh
An Investigation
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
"A remarkable work of slowed-down journalism...They are doing their jobs as journalists and writing the first draft of history." —Jill Filipovic, The Washington Post
"...Generous but also damning." —Hanna Rosin, The New York Times
From two New York Times reporters, a deeper look at the formative years of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his confirmation.
In September 2018, the F.B.I. was given only a week to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee. But even as Kavanaugh was sworn in to his lifetime position, many questions remained unanswered, leaving millions of Americans unsettled.
During the Senate confirmation hearings that preceded the bureau's brief probe, New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly broke critical stories about Kavanaugh's past, including the "Renate Alumni" yearbook story. They were inundated with tips from former classmates, friends, and associates that couldn't be fully investigated before the confirmation process closed. Now, their book fills in the blanks and explores the essential question: Who is Brett Kavanaugh?
The Education of Brett Kavanaugh paints a picture of the prep-school and Ivy-League worlds that formed our newest Supreme Court Justice. By offering commentary from key players from his confirmation process who haven't yet spoken publicly and pursuing lines of inquiry that were left hanging, it will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand our political system and Kavanaugh's unexpectedly emblematic role in it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalists Pogrebin and Kelly (Street Fighters) expand on their New York Times coverage of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's 2018 confirmation hearings in this measured, methodical account. Readers who followed the hearings will be familiar with the major events: the letter sent by Stanford University research psychologist Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to California senator Dianne Feinstein accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault in high school; the emergence of a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who claimed that Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her at a Yale University party in the 1980s, causing her to inadvertently touch his penis; the back-to-back testimonies delivered by Ford and Kavanaugh to the Senate judiciary committee; and Arizona senator Jeff Flake's demand that the FBI be allowed to investigate the accusations. Pogrebin and Kelly reveal that the FBI didn't investigate an eyewitness claim that Kavanaugh had exposed himself on another occasion in college (the alleged victim told friends she didn't recall the incident) and report that he may have reached out to at least one college classmate to coordinate the response to Ramirez's allegations. Pogrebin and Kelly conclude that Ford and Ramirez were "mistreated" by Kavanaugh, yet "over the next thirty-five years became a better person." Judiciously reported yet lacking in substantive analysis of the larger issues involved, this blow-by-blow chronicle feels more like a second draft of history than the definitive version.
