Merrick Garland may play a role in the vacant Supreme Court seat after all. A liberal group has filed a criminal complaint against Brett Kavanaugh for allegedly perjuring himself in front of the Senate judiciary committee. Garland, who is the chief judge of the D.C. federal circuit, was asked to rule upon the complaint or appoint a special panel of jurists to investigate the allegations.
The Democratic Coalition, a group led by Jon Cooper and Scott Dworkin, claim that Kavanaugh lied under oath before the Senate back in 2004 and 2006 when he said he was unaware he read and used stolen emails in 2002. Kavanaugh was going through the hearing process in those years to become a federal district and appellate judge, respectively.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was on the Senate judiciary committee back in the mid-2000s, asked Kavanaugh if he was involved in the stolen email scandal while he worked in the Bush White House in the early 2000s. Kavanaugh said he was unaware that emails were stolen at the time, and insisted that if he did know, he would would have blown the whistle on his colleagues. Fast forward to 2018, Leahy, still on the Senate judiciary committee, introduced new evidence that suggested Kavanaugh handled emails that were stolen during that time period.