Critics of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, connected Kavanaugh’s selection to the ongoing Russia investigation, citing an article Kavanaugh wrote that claimed presidents should not be tied up in lawsuits and probes and warning that the commander in chief might be looking for a way to protect himself in a legal challenge.

In a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, Kavanaugh claimed that presidents should not be caught up in “time-consuming and distracting” lawsuits and investigations. He argued that they “would ill serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis.”