Title: Did Brett Kavanaugh 'Never Try a Case' Before Being Promoted from Law Clerk to Federal Judge? | Snopes.com
Headings: Did Brett Kavanaugh ‘Never Try a Case’ Before Being Promoted from Law Clerk to Federal Judge?
Did Brett Kavanaugh ‘Never Try a Case’ Before Being Promoted from Law Clerk to Federal Judge?
Kavanaugh hadn't spent much time in courtrooms when President George W. Bush nominated him to the DC Circuit in 2003, but he did have other legal experience.
Claim
Rating
Origin
‘A law clerk promoted to a judge’
‘Never tried a case in a regular court’
Keep Snopes Debunking
Editors' Picks
Under HIPAA Rules, Can Businesses Ask If You Have Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19? Where does HIPAA's privacy rule apply?
Can Everyone Who’s Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Go Anywhere Maskless Now? If you're planning to travel or visit a doctor, the CDC says cover your face...

Content: Even counting his time as a law clerk, he still has only half of the average legal experience of nominees to the DC Circuit. To put this in context, Mr. Kavanaugh would be the least experienced member of the DC Circuit in almost a quarter century. His lack of experience is underscored by his responses to questions from [Senate] Judiciary Committee members. When he was asked to name his 10 most significant cases, Mr. Kavanaugh could only cite five cases for which he actually appeared in court, and only two cases in which he was lead counsel. He even cited two cases for which he merely wrote a friend-of-the-court brief for someone who was not a party to the lawsuit. In referring to Kavanaugh’s role in “some of the most politically divisive events in recent memory,” Kennedy almost certainly meant the 2000 Florida recount and Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s investigation into the Whitewater scandal, which expanded to cover President Bill Clinton’s affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and ultimately yielded grounds for the unsuccessful impeachment of Clinton. In the mid-1990s, Kavanaugh took part in the Clinton investigations led by Starr, for whom he had worked in 1992 and 1993 when Starr was U.S. Solicitor General. In 1999, the New York Times described Kavanaugh as having been one of “the most important lawyers on the Lewinsky inquiry.” During this period, Kavanaugh controversially re-investigated the death of Vince Foster, Clinton’s White House Counsel, despite the fact that several official investigations had already concluded that Foster shot himself to death in 1993. ( Since it took place, Foster’s death has become the subject of rampant conspiracy theories implicating Bill and Hillary Clinton, about which more can be read here .)