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The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation Hardcover – September 17, 2019

by Robin Pogrebin (Author), Kate Kelly (Author)

4.1 137 ratings

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"A remarkable work of slowed-down journalism...They are doing their jobs as journalists and writing the first draft of history." —Jill Filipovic, The Washington Post

"...Generous but also damning." —Hanna Rosin, The New York Times

From two New York Times reporters, a deeper look at the formative years of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his confirmation.

In September 2018, the F.B.I. was given only a week to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee. But even as Kavanaugh was sworn in to his lifetime position, many questions remained unanswered, leaving millions of Americans unsettled.

During the Senate confirmation hearings that preceded the bureau's brief probe, New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly broke critical stories about Kavanaugh's past, including the "Renate Alumni" yearbook story. They were inundated with tips from former classmates, friends, and associates that couldn't be fully investigated before the confirmation process closed. Now, their book fills in the blanks and explores the essential question: Who is Brett Kavanaugh?

The Education of Brett Kavanaugh paints a picture of the prep-school and Ivy-League worlds that formed our newest Supreme Court Justice. By offering commentary from key players from his confirmation process who haven't yet spoken publicly and pursuing lines of inquiry that were left hanging, it will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand our political system and Kavanaugh's unexpectedly emblematic role in it.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Portfolio
Publication date

September 17, 2019
Dimensions

6.26 x 1.1 x 9.28 inches
ISBN-10

059308439X
ISBN-13

978-0593084397
See all details

Brad Snyder
56
Hardcover
29 offers from $14.20

From the Publisher

The Education of Brett Kavanaugh, Kate Kelly, Robin Pogrebin, Brett Kavanaugh

Editorial Reviews

Review

"At last, the deep, serious, and complete story of Brett Kavanaugh. All of us subject to the Supreme Court must read it." —Gloria Steinem

"A revision that adds to the existing story rather than fundamentally changing it." —The Atlantic

“Pogrebin and Kelly uncovered crucial information about the hurried (or nonexistent) FBI investigations into both Blasey Ford and Ramirez’s allegations before Kavanaugh was added for life to the Supreme Court.” —The Cut

About the Author

Robin Pogrebin is a reporter on the New York Times's Culture Desk, where she covers the art world and cultural institutions--exploring the internal politics, finances, and governance of museums, auction houses, galleries, and performing arts organizations. She has covered the media for the Business Desk and city news for the Metro Desk. Prior to the Times, she was a reporter at the New York Observer and an associate producer at ABC News for Peter Jennings's documentary unit. She attended Riverdale Country School in New York and graduated from Yale College in 1987.

Kate Kelly is a reporter for the New York Times who covers Wall Street. She is also an experienced television broadcaster and the author of Street Fighters, the bestselling account of the bank failure that touched off the financial crisis. Her reporting focuses on big banks, the worlds of trading and lending, and the crucial players setting financial policy both in business and in politics. Prior to the Times, she worked at the New York Observer, the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC. She attended the National Cathedral School in Washington and graduated from Columbia College in 1997.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PROLOGUE
Nostos: Homecoming

It was cold for October, with evening temperatures dropping into the forties as alumni poured onto Georgetown Preparatory School’s leafy campus in suburban Maryland for their thirty-fifth-year high school reunion. It had been a tumultuous day for the country. A Florida man had been arrested for sending package bombs to more than a dozen prominent Democrats, including former president Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Despite the serious threat, President Donald Trump was focused on the upcoming midterm congressional elections and wanted his party to do the same. The “‘Bomb’ stuff,” as Trump put it in a tweet, risked slowing Republican momentum at a critical time.

On the Georgetown Prep campus, hundreds of former students were gathering in the George Center, a large brick building adjacent to the football stadium where the school store and snack bar were located. Nicknamed “Stag Night” because significant others were not invited, the Friday evening cocktail gathering was the traditional start to Reunion Weekend. There would be welcome speeches from school officials; wisecracks about thickening waists and thinning hair; beer and finger food.

The next day, about four hundred people would gather to watch the school’s football team, the Hoyas, play the homecoming game against Episcopal High School, despite the chilly, wet afternoon. During the years when it was still part of Georgetown University, Prep had at some point dubbed its teams the “Hoyas,” which derived from the Latin cheer “Hoya Saxa!” (translation: “What Rocks!”). After this particular homecoming game— during which the Hoyas trounced their Episcopal High rivals, 24–6— classmates, spouses, and friends would toast over cocktails and trade stories at nearby Pinstripes, a bistro/ bowling- and- bocce venue in North Bethesda.

Brett Kavanaugh typically welcomed these rare opportunities to reconnect and reminisce with old friends. But this year, he had seriously considered opting out. Three weeks had passed since his confirmation as the newest associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, about six since the devastating accusation that almost derailed it. So when he arrived on campus for his reunion, Kavanaugh was steeled for awkward interactions.

At the same time, he appeared resolutely upbeat, in keeping with his often articulated philosophy to “live on the sunrise side of the mountain.”

As a justice on America’s highest court, Kavanaugh now had a security detail that followed him to public places, particularly since, during the confirmation process, his wife had been targeted by vicious emails and his family had received death threats. Many of Kavanaugh’s fellow Georgetown Prep alumni had been supportive. Nearly two hundred had signed a letter endorsing his Supreme Court candidacy when he was nominated. Some had even gone on TV to praise his character. But given the polarizing nature of the hearings, he knew that not everyone stood behind him.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; First Edition (September 17, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 059308439X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593084397
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.26 x 1.1 x 9.28 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,262,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #408 in United States Judicial Branch
- #886 in Lawyer & Judge Biographies
- #5,994 in Political Leader Biographies

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4.1 137 ratings

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B. Bem

Context and nuance help evaluate the Kavanaugh story

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2019

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First things first. In reading other reviews of this book, I was surprised to see that most of the negative reviews were written on September 17, the day of publication. Are these all speed-readers who bought the book in the morning and wrote their reviews at night; or did these reviewers write their reviews from their political perspective without bothering to read the book? I was very pleased that Amazon timed the delivery of the book to me so that it arrived on the very day of publication. Now after a few days, I am ready to write a review.

The authors have stated that, after the explosive confirmation hearings, they wanted to investigate further Mr. Kavanaugh’s education, social circle, and evolution to add nuance and context to the story that the public already knew. They have done exactly that in this well-researched and well-written book.

They do not advocate any specific position for or against Mr. Kavanaugh. They give us background: information about his schools, his upbringing, and his circle of friends both in high school and at Yale. They review the accusations of sexual misconduct against him and what is known about the accusers. They leave it to the readers to decide whether to believe the accusations as credible and whether the sometimes-hazy recollections of events are believable.

They also give valuable information about the nomination and confirmation processes. It is clear that Mr. Kavanaugh’s privileged life gave him valuable friendships and connections in the legal and political world that helped him move up the legal chain and win the nomination to the Supreme Court over other worthy candidates.

While reporters Pogrebin and Kelly do not come to conclusions—they leave that to the reader—they suggest that his drinking and bad behavior were in the past and that for the last 35+ years he has been a mature and thoughtful person who seems to have been a model husband, father, and judge. The late Justice John Paul Stevens remarked during the confirmation battle that in fact Kavanaugh had been an excellent judge on the court.

While I agree for the most part with Pogrebin and Kelly, I have two nagging doubts about Kavanaugh’s qualifications to be on the Supreme Court. His rants during the nomination hearings caused me to think that temperamentally he was unfit for the Court, and Justice Stevens even made the same observation.

More disturbing is this: During an interview that the two authors gave in Washington, someone asked why they had not interviewed Kavanaugh himself. They stated that they attempted to negotiate an interview with him and even traveled to Washington before the negotiations were final because they were so close to the publication deadline. Kavanaugh set down a condition that he would only grant an interview if they wrote a line in the book stating that they had not interviewed him. They offered to say nothing in the book about the interview, but he insisted that they write in the book that they had not spoken with him. They refused to do this and went back to NYC without talking to him. Did I hear this right? Is this a sitting Supreme Court Justice asking them to mislead the public and publish a lie?

So, readers, read the book and come to your own conclusions. Justice Kavanaugh will likely be on the Court for a long time.

Barry Bem, Washington, DC, September 20, 2019

41 people found this helpful

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Tom Dolan

Authors turn mom's harmless words into knife they twist in son's heart.

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2019

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On October 5, 2018, on the floor of the United States Senate, Senator Susan Collins (R. Maine) delivered an engrossing and masterful speech in which she explained, in depth and in detail, why she was voting to confirm the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.

With "fundamental legal principles (of) due process, the presumption of innocence, and fairness" in mind, Senator Collins took everything into account, weighed every bit of it carefully, deliberated, and, in the end, determined that Dr. Ford's allegations against Judge Kavanaugh failed to meet the minimum ("at least"; "threshold") standard of proof, which requires that it be “more likely than not” that an allegation is true.

"More likely than not" is the correct minimum standard of proof in this situation.

By contrast, in THE EDUCATION OF BRETT KAVANAUGH, authors Robin Pogrenbin and Kate Kelly applied the following standard of proof: “Use your common sense? What rings true? What rings false?”

The latter is an incorrect minimum standard of proof in this situation.

The difference between Pogrebin & Kelly's incorrect minimum standard of proof, on one hand, and Senator Collins's correct minimum standard of proof, on the other, is stark and striking.

How could such a big difference be possible? How did such a big difference come about?

To answer those two questions perfectly & completely, I would need to be an omniscient mind reader, which I am not. I do not know, nor can I know, what Pogrebin and Kelly, respectively, were thinking as they wrote their book. Nor do I know, or can I know, what Senator Collins was thinking as she wrote her speech.

Despite my intellectual and informational limitations, however, I do know the written words in Pogrebin & Kelly's book. And I do know the written words in the transcript of Senator Collins's speech. That's what I have to work with. So, I go to work with what I have. I compare and contrast two separate texts: Senator Collins's speech vs. Pogrebin & Kelly's book.

As I do my comparative analysis of those two texts, I see that answering the second question (How did such a big difference between Senator Collins's standard of proof and Pogrebin & Kelly's standard of proof come about?) goes a long way towards answering the first question (How could the two standards be so different?).

One reason why the two standards of proof are strikingly different is that they "came about" in strikingly different ways. Senator Collins, on one hand, and Pogrebin & Kelly, on the other, came up with strikingly different standards of proof because they applied strikingly different methodologies!

As noted in the second paragraph of this review, Senator Collins applied a methodology based on "fundamental legal principles (of) due process, the presumption of innocence, and fairness."

By contrast, Pogrebin & Kelly applied a methodology of madness masquerading as voyeuristic journalism:

1. They entered the home of their target's family;
2. They eavesdropped over the family dinner table;
3. They listened in on the family's private conversations;
4. They zeroed in on the mother;
5. They heard the mother say, “Use your common sense? What rings true? What rings false?”;
6. They yanked the mother's words out of context;
7. They turned the mother's harmless words into a knife;
8. They plunged that knife into the son's heart; and
9. They twisted that knife & kept twisting it.

What a horrible thing to do. To use a mother's words against her son. It goes against nature.

And it goes public in a book that Pogrebin & Kelly dedicate to THEIR families.

What about their target's family? his feelings? his future?

Have you no decency, Pogrebin & Kelly? Have you no decency!

Cf. "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" -- Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joseph R. McCarty (June 9, 1954).

"Heartless was the heart that had the heart to do it." -- See Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, scene ii.

14 people found this helpful

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William D. Geerhart

Well Researched and Fair

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Unlike the previous Kavanaugh books published as of the Fall of 2019, this book benefits from the dogged and balanced approach of the authors, two seasoned New York Times journalists. Heretofore, the best known Kavanaugh examination was a book co-authored by the policy director of a dark money foundation that spent tens of millions of dollars to get Kavanaugh confirmed and a paid contributor for Fox News. THE EDUCATION OF BRETT KAVANAUGH, on the other hand, is exceedingly fair to all parties including Justice Kavanaugh. Pogrebin and Kelly's approach is to essentially provide the fulsome FBI investigation that the American public was denied in 2018. The result of their deep research and many interviews is a nuanced portrait of Kavanaugh that goes back to his elementary school years and takes us all the way through the chaos of his confirmation hearings. Along the way, the authors also provide a compelling, page-turning recap of the dramatic events of 2018. This fine book is not the final word on the Kavanaugh hearings as there is so much additional information waiting to be mined by future writers (including the 500+ page FBI report that is currently being withheld from Freedom of Information Act requests). But as of this review, THE EDUCATION OF BRETT KAVANAUGH is the best available book on last year's epic Supreme Court battle.

13 people found this helpful

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Black Irish Belle

In-Depth Research

Reviewed in Canada on November 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

Tons of information with great background info on all the characters involved in this public nightmare. The writers remind us that Kavanaugh is a flawed human being. Had he not lied during his hearings perhaps he might have been seen as more authentic...less guilty?

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