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发帖数: 897 | 1 Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh incurred tens of thousands of
dollars of credit card debt buying baseball tickets over the past decade and
at times reported liabilities that could have exceeded the value of his
cash accounts and investment assets, according to a review of Kavanaugh’s
financial disclosures and information provided by the White House.
White House spokesman Raj Shah told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh built
up the debt by buying Washington Nationals season tickets and tickets for
playoff games for himself and a “handful” of friends. Shah said some of
the debts were also for home improvements.
In 2016, Kavanaugh reported having between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt
accrued over three credit cards and a loan. Each credit card held between $
15,000 and $50,000 in debt, and a Thrift Savings Plan loan was between $15,
000 and $50,000.
The credit card debts and loan were either paid off or fell below the
reporting requirements in 2017, according to the filings, which do not
require details on the nature or source of such payments. Shah told The Post
that Kavanaugh’s friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball
tickets and that the judge has since stopped purchasing the season tickets.
Shah did not provide the names of the friends or additional details about
the tickets. Kavanaugh, who is known to be a Nationals fan, declined to
comment.
Shah said the payments for the tickets were made at the end of 2016 and paid
off early the next year.
“He did not carry that kind of debt year over year,” Shah said.
Kavanaugh’s most recent financial disclosure forms reveal reportable assets
between $15,000 and $65,000, which would put him at the bottom of the
financial ranking of justices, most of whom list well over $1 million in
assets. The value of residences is not subject to disclosure, and Shah added
that Kavanaugh has a government retirement account worth nearly half a
million dollars that also was not required to be disclosed.
“At this time the Kavanaughs have no debt beyond their home mortgage,”
Shah said.
He said that Kavanaugh has assets of nearly $1 million between the equity in
his home and his retirement account.
Unlike some of the other justices, Kavanaugh has worked more than two
decades in the public sector and has not built wealth as a private lawyer.
“Judge Kavanaugh is a brilliant jurist who has dedicated his life to public
service,” Shah said.
Prices for Nationals season ticket packages can vary widely, depending on
their location in the stadium. Seats a dozen rows behind the dugout can go
for as much as $6,000 apiece for an 81-game season package.
Gleaning financial information from public disclosure forms has limitations.
For instance, judges do not report primary residences — meaning that
estimates of net worth can be significantly undervalued. Disclosures are
meant to provide transparency to avoid conflicts of interest involving
justices and those who do business before the court.
Federal law requires only broad ranges for disclosure forms, and such
filings include assets for spouses, so it is difficult to pinpoint an exact
financial snapshot for an individual.
But for Kavanaugh, the differences between his finances and those of his
would-be peers on the court are stark. He lists just two kinds of assets —
unspecified accounts held with Bank of America, and his wife’s retirement
fund from her job in Texas — totaling between $15,000 to $65,000.
His public filing does not include his home, which he purchased with his
wife, Ashley, in 2006 for $1.2 million. Public real estate filings indicate
that the couple has refinanced their mortgage twice, most recently in 2015.
Their currentmortgage is $865,000.
His past financial disclosure forms reveal that Kavanaugh has incurred
significant credit card debt on and off for more than a decade. He
previously reported between $60,000 to $200,000 in debt among three credit
cards and a loan in 2006, the same year he was confirmed to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Without including homes, Kavanaugh would rank at the bottom of disclosed
assets among the justices by a considerable margin, according to a review of
2017 disclosures listed on Fix the Court, a website dedicated to greater
transparency in the judiciarybranch.
Justice Clarence Thomas has assets listed between $695,000 and $1.7 million,
which is the least among the justices, not counting departing Justice
Anthony M. Kennedy, but still at least 10 times that of Kavanaugh. The court
’s newest justice, Neil M. Gorsuch, reported assets worth between $3.6
million and $10.5 million in his most recent filings. The justice with the
highest reported assets was Stephen G. Breyer, who listed between $6.4
million and $16.6 million.
Federal circuit judges draw annual salaries of about $220,000 a year, and
Kavanaugh supplemented his salary with more than $27,000 in teaching income
in 2017 from Harvard Law School. Associate justices on the Supreme Court
make $255,300, while Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. draws a $267,000
salary.
Kavanaugh lives in the Village of the affluent village of Chevy Chase,
Section 5, where his wife works as the town manager and draws a $66,000
annual salary.
The Kavanaughs send their two daughters to the Catholic private school of
Blessed Sacrament, where tuition costs $10,025 per child.
The perch of a Supreme Court seat can provide additional sources of income.
Shortly after her 2009 nomination to the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor
announced plans for a memoir, which was published in 2013. Last year,
Sotomayor reported more than $117,000 in income from publisher Penguin
Random House. She received a publisher’s advance of nearly $1.2 million.
Academic trips and fellowships can also bring in additionalincome. Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned $25,000 as a visiting fellow to Stanford
University last year. |
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