Team Brett: Who's who of Kavanaugh's Senate Committee supporters

Team Brett revealed: Who’s who of Kavanaugh’s Senate Committee supporters including his stoic wife, tearful parents, gaggle of female friends and a top Facebook boss

Brett Kavanaugh’s supporters sat behind him during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee
His wife, mother and father were joined by female friends, the judge’s former clerk and White House Counsel
Facebook’s Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan made a surprise appearance near his wife Laura

As Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh broke down describing how his reputation had been left in tatters and senators barraged him with questions, his supporters had his back throughout.

Sitting behind him during the testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday were family and friends including his mother Martha, father Edward and wife Ashley.

Facebook’s Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan made a surprise appearance and sat near his wife Laura Cox Kaplan, who is a family friend of the Kavanaughs. She sat between the judge’s wife and mother.

A Facebook spokesman said Joel Kaplan was attending in a personal capacity as a friend of Kavanaugh’s. The pair both worked for former President George W. Bush.

Team Brett: (left to right) Father Edward Kavanaugh, mother Martha Kavanaugh, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan, family friend Laura Cox Kaplan, wife Ashley Kavanaugh, Brett Kavanaugh, friend Suzanne Matan, Kavanaugh’s former clerk Zina Bash and White House House Counsel Donald McGahn

At his right: (left to right) Father Edward Kavanaugh, mother Martha Kavanaugh, family friend Laura Cox Kaplan and wife Ashley Kavanaugh

At his left: Friend Suzanne Matan, Kavanaugh’s former clerk Zina Bash and White House House Counsel Donald McGahn

Facebook ’s Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan made a surprise appearance behind his wife Laura Cox

Another female friend Suzanne Matan was at his left in the front row, next to Kavanaugh’s former clerk Zina Bash. White House House Counsel Donald McGahn sat beside Bash.

Bash hit the headlines earlier this month when she was seen making what appeared to be a white power hand sign during Kavanaugh’s hearing.

Zina’s husband, US Attorney John Bash, assured the public that neither he nor his wife were aware of the gesture’s meaning. He added that they do not associate with hate groups that ‘aim to terrorize and demean other people’.

Matan was one of dozens who ‘knew Brett Kavanaugh well in high school’ who signed a letter released by the White House on Wednesday which refuted claims by accuser Julie Swetnick.

Kavanaugh had arrived for the make-or-break evidence session hand-in-hand with his wife Ashley – after hours of testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, 51, the woman who says he tried to rape her when she was 15.

Neither smiled as they walked into the Senate committee room for his testimony, during which he tried to convince Republican senators who hold his Supreme Court nomination in their hands that he is worth voting for.

Kavanaugh nearly broke down in tears multiple times in a 45-minute emotional opening statement to senators, as he angrily described the effect of the allegations against him on his family and his daughters – saying his youngest even wanted to pray for Ford.

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Martha Kavanaugh began crying during the hearing as she sat beside her husband and Kavanaugh’s father Edward

(Left to right) Kavanaugh’s mother Martha Kavanaugh, family friend Laura Cox Kaplan, and wife Ashley Kavanaugh, listen as Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary committee regarding sexual assault allegations

Visibly angry, he repeatedly stopped to blow his nose and drink water as he unleashed against the Democrats on the committee, accusing them of making him the victim of a smear campaign, saying: ‘My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed.’

And he said he believed it was an attack not just on Donald Trump who nominated him, but in revenge for ‘the Clintons’, a reference to his work on Kenneth Starr’s investigation into Bill Clinton.

‘This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups,’ he said.

Kavanaugh choked up and took deep, heaving breaths as he talked about what his youngest daughter told his wife the night before he testified.

‘Little Liza all of 10 years of old said to Ashley, we should pray for the woman. That’s a lot of wisdom from a 10-year–old,’ he said.

Kavanaugh and his wife Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, hold hands as they leave a holding room after the hearing on Thursday

Then he had to pause, choke back tears and regain his composure. ‘We mean no ill will,’ he added.

Martha broke down in tears during his emotional testimony, during which he talked about her going to law school when he was 10 years old.

‘… as a lawyer she worked hard and overcame barriers, including the workplace sexual harassment that so many women faced at the time and still face today,’ he said. ‘She became a trailblazer, one of Maryland’s earliest women prosecutors and trial judges.

‘She and my dad taught me the importance equality and respect for all people and she inspired me to be a lawyer and a judge.’

The gripping day-long hearing opened with Ford recounting to a packed room the harrowing details of what she said was an attempted rape by Kavanaugh 36 years ago.

Ford said she was ‘100 per cent’ certain that Kavanaugh was her assailant and it was ‘absolutely not’ a case of mistaken identity.

‘I am here today not because I want to be,’ Ford said as she recounted the alleged assault at a high school party at a suburban Maryland home in 1982.

‘I am terrified,’ she said, her voice often quavering. ‘I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me.’

The gripping day-long hearing opened with Ford recounting the harrowing details of what she said was an attempted rape by Kavanaugh 36 years ago

WSTale.com

Team Brett: Who’s who of Kavanaugh’s Senate Committee supporters

Team Brett revealed: Who’s who of Kavanaugh’s Senate Committee supporters including his stoic wife, tearful parents, gaggle of female friends and a top Facebook boss

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