So maybe there was something to see after all (FBI turned over "relevant" tips on Brett Kavanaugh to Trump White House) (1 Viewer)

Users who are viewing this thread

    Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
    GrandAdmiral

    GrandAdmiral

    Well-known member
    Joined
    Nov 20, 2019
    Messages
    4,132
    Reaction score
    5,987
    Location
    Center of the Universe
    Offline
    I understand the FBI's argument, but damn, when you get so much you actually have to open a tip line to collect info. And it ends up the only people who gets this info are the ones who want it to go away. GTFOH

    www.cnn.com

    FBI says it got more than 4,500 tips on Kavanaugh, providing 'relevant' ones to White House

    The FBI disclosed that it received more than 4,500 tips on a phone line in 2018 as part of a background investigation into then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and provided "relevant" ones to former President Donald Trump's White House counsel.
    www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
     
    She said that pursuant to a memo of understanding between the Justice Department and the White House in 2010, the FBI does not reopen background investigations unless it is "specifically instructed to do so by the requesting entity."
    Click to expand...
    Sorry, but if there were 4500 tips that were considered to be legitimate, why couldn't Biden's office ask them to reopen the background investigation since the office of POTUS is the requesting entity in this case?
     
    DaveXA said:
    Those numbers don't strike me as all that disturbing or even unusual. I'm not sure what the issue is. There are bigger red flags than this imo. Also...a country club requiring a $92k initiation fee? That seems absurdly high though.
    Click to expand...
    Six figures in credit card debt while making $220k/year? And then joining a country club with a $92k initiation fee, on top of its monthly fees, and two kids in private schools?

    That doesn’t seem to be consistent with living within ones’ means to me, but maybe I’m out of touch.
     
    MT15 said:
    Six figures in credit card debt while making $220k/year? And then joining a country club with a $92k initiation fee, on top of its monthly fees, and two kids in private schools?

    That doesn’t seem to be consistent with living within ones’ means to me, but maybe I’m out of touch.
    Click to expand...

    I always remember the baseball thing being fishy. He was probably the poorest guy in his social circle so why was he the point man? I always was under the impression the repayment was not immediate. That's why he had to report the debt. Why?

    How does an appellate judge find time to go to that many games?

    The whole thing come off as "It was baseball. I'm just a normal guy who likes baseball and beer." All the while handwaving the massive debt, and repayment that just so happened to coincide with a Republican president coming into office.
     
    J-DONK said:
    I always remember the baseball thing being fishy. He was probably the poorest guy in his social circle so why was he the point man? I always was under the impression the repayment was not immediate. That's why he had to report the debt. Why?

    How does an appellate judge find time to go to that many games?

    The whole thing come off as "It was baseball. I'm just a normal guy who likes baseball and beer." All the while handwaving the massive debt, and repayment that just so happened to coincide with a Republican president coming into office.
    Click to expand...
    Guys, both the left and right do this.
    As they use to say in the Army, rank has privileges.
     
    I don't know, $100k in debt is peanuts for someone making $220k/year. I mean, it depends on what that debt is. Some people making $220k are several hundred thousand dollars in debt. Finance a house, auto, real estate, furniture, even just plain old credit card debt. I mean, at one point I was making roughly a third of what he's making and I was $60k in credit card debt and never missed a payment or defaulted. $100k is pretty meaningless without some context to it.

    As for kids in private schools, the tuition varies wildly from school to school and it's not that hard to get favorable discounts depending on the connections you have with the school. I mean, I was a minister and got a very friendly rate from a private school for my kids when they were young. So, it depends.

    I can't speak to the initiation fee because I don't know what the payment arrangements were..

    All that said, I'm not a fan of Kavanagh. He's a SCOTUS justice and I don't see him going anywhere anytime soon. It is what it is.
    MT15 said:
    Six figures in credit card debt while making $220k/year? And then joining a country club with a $92k initiation fee, on top of its monthly fees, and two kids in private schools?

    That doesn’t seem to be consistent with living within ones’ means to me, but maybe I’m out of touch.
    Click to expand...
     
    That doesn’t include his mortgage or car payments, Dave. That is solely credit card debt.

    And we know it’s at least $100,000 in credit card debt because of the financial disclosure document, but rumor is it was closer to $200,000.

    But the real issue isn’t that he had the debt, it’s that it got paid off all at once, right before his confirmation hearing. And we don’t know who paid it off or what they might expect in return.
     
    MT15 said:
    That doesn’t include his mortgage or car payments, Dave. That is solely credit card debt.

    And we know it’s at least $100,000 in credit card debt because of the financial disclosure document, but rumor is it was closer to $200,000.

    But the real issue isn’t that he had the debt, it’s that it got paid off all at once, right before his confirmation hearing. And we don’t know who paid it off or what they might expect in return.
    Click to expand...
    Yeah, the tweet didn't state that and I haven't read up on any of it. I don't know. The thing is, he went through the vetting process and all of this should have been covered then. Maybe it was and they decided it wasn't enough of a red flag to disqualify him from his nomination. Kavanaugh couldn't have done that on his own. The vetting process is independent of anything he does. So, I'd be surprised if they go back into all of that while he's a sitting justice.

    Also, whether it's $100k or $200k of credit card debt still doesn't mean a whole lot if you're making $220k per year. That might not be all of his income either, depending on how his spouse reports her income. As for paying it off, who knows? Maybe they had money socked away for when they needed it.

    It just seems to be moot at this point. This should have all be litigated when he was a nominee. Not after the fact, unless he actually lied to the background investigators about the source of the payments.

    Some of this strikes me as sour grapes, which I get. He shouldn't have been the nominee. It just feels to me like this is an exercise in futility. I don't see anything coming of it. If it does, then good riddance.
     
    DaveXA said:
    I don't know, $100k in debt is peanuts for someone making $220k/year. I mean, it depends on what that debt is. Some people making $220k are several hundred thousand dollars in debt. Finance a house, auto, real estate, furniture, even just plain old credit card debt. I mean, at one point I was making roughly a third of what he's making and I was $60k in credit card debt and never missed a payment or defaulted. $100k is pretty meaningless without some context to it.

    As for kids in private schools, the tuition varies wildly from school to school and it's not that hard to get favorable discounts depending on the connections you have with the school. I mean, I was a minister and got a very friendly rate from a private school for my kids when they were young. So, it depends.

    I can't speak to the initiation fee because I don't know what the payment arrangements were..

    All that said, I'm not a fan of Kavanagh. He's a SCOTUS justice and I don't see him going anywhere anytime soon. It is what it is.
    Click to expand...


    You're not seeing the forest.

    Why would a guy making 250k per year have 100k in credit card debt? If anything, he's a terrible credit risk.

    IF a guy making 250 per year is 100k in debt to credit cards paying big interest why would he stroke a check for 90k for a country club initiation? How would he do that and where did the money come from? I mean if you're in such dire financial straits that you're running 100k in debt on a credit card, how do you pay a country club initiation fee?
     
    DaveXA said:
    Yeah, the tweet didn't state that and I haven't read up on any of it. I don't know. The thing is, he went through the vetting process and all of this should have been covered then. Maybe it was and they decided it wasn't enough of a red flag to disqualify him from his nomination. Kavanaugh couldn't have done that on his own. The vetting process is independent of anything he does. So, I'd be surprised if they go back into all of that while he's a sitting justice.

    Also, whether it's $100k or $200k of credit card debt still doesn't mean a whole lot if you're making $220k per year. That might not be all of his income either, depending on how his spouse reports her income. As for paying it off, who knows? Maybe they had money socked away for when they needed it.

    It just seems to be moot at this point. This should have all be litigated when he was a nominee. Not after the fact, unless he actually lied to the background investigators about the source of the payments.

    Some of this strikes me as sour grapes, which I get. He shouldn't have been the nominee. It just feels to me like this is an exercise in futility. I don't see anything coming of it. If it does, then good riddance.
    Click to expand...

    Dood. 200k in cc debt on 200k in income is not peanuts. The payment on that debt is probably 5,000 per month.

    And, the point is the "vetting" you're saying should've been done wasn't because those who were supposed to be vetting him blocked any attempt to actually look at the facts. The call lines, the financial disclosures... the whole thing was rammed through by Republicans who refused to let the facts be reviewed.
     
    dtc said:
    Dood. 200k in cc debt on 200k in income is not peanuts. The payment on that debt is probably 5,000 per month.

    And, the point is the "vetting" you're saying should've been done wasn't because those who were supposed to be vetting him blocked any attempt to actually look at the facts. The call lines, the financial disclosures... the whole thing was rammed through by Republicans who refused to let the facts be reviewed.
    Click to expand...

    Well, the peanuts comment was more about peanuts relative to overall debt, and $100k which is peanuts. Now, $100k-$200k in revolving credit card debt is certainly not peanuts, but it's still serviceable. A credit card with $20k on it will typically have minimum payment of around $650-$700. Might be a little more or less depending on the card and interest rate. So, extrapolate that to $100k and that's around $3500/month. For someone who's take home pay is probably around $12k month, it's doable. If it's $200k, that would be tough to pull off but it's not really unheard of.

    I hear you on the vetting aspect. But I'm not sure that anything can be done with it at this point. Like I said, if they manage to do another review or something which can stick, then good riddance. But this is Washington, a sitting justice going anywhere because of this sort of thing is rather unlikely. I think energy for tipping the scales in SCOTUS would be better spent elsewhere. I could be wrong, but I'd be surprised tbh.
     

    Create an account or login to comment

    You must be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create account

    Create an account on our community. It's easy!

    Register

    Log in

    Already have an account? Log in here.

    Share this page

    General News Feed

    Fact Checkers News Feed

    Back
    Top Bottom