Have you heard?
Outgoing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy secretly negotiated his retirement with the White House last November, securing assurances that his seat would go to one of his former law clerks.
It’s true! Or so said NBC News’ Leigh Caldwell, who produced a viral (but bogus) narrative this week alleging a nefarious plot behind the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
“On Kavanaugh pick,” Caldwell said in a since-deleted tweet, “Kennedy and Trump/WH had been in negotiations for months over Kennedy’s replacement. Once Kennedy received assurances that it would be Kavanaugh, his former law clerk, Kennedy felt comfortable retiring, according to a source who was told of the discussion.”
Her supposed scoop was shared almost immediately by more than 1,500 social media users.
Caldwell added later, “Furthermore, the five names Trump added to his list of Federalist Approved judges last November was to get Kavanaugh on that list. The other four names were considered cover, per source. In other words: the decision has been baked for a while.”
Scandal! Swampy!
She then tweeted, “To be clear: This is from one source and dont have any info on whether potus talked to kennedy about a possible replacement.”
Oh.
Caldwell then deleted her initial tweet, and later posted a series of clarifications.
“I am told by a source who was not directly part of the talks that Kennedy provided Pres. Trump/ WH a list of acceptable replacements,” she wrote.
Caldwell added, “Kavanaugh was the only one who was thought conservative enough to consider, I’m told. They added Kavanaugh — and 4 other names — to the public Federalist list that Trump would choose from in November.”
Put more plainly, she dropped the ball. Badly.
The president’s judicial adviser, Leonard Leo, who played a role in the nominations of both Kavanaugh and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, unequivocally denied Caldwell’s rumor.
“That is garbage,” he said in a radio interview. “[Kennedy] treats his office with tremendous dignity and independence. And there is literally no way in the world that that would have happened.”
The thing that gets me: Even if her story were true, Kennedy agreeing to retire only if Trump pinky swears to replace him with a specific former clerk makes no sense.
“It’s a strange concept for a deal anyway. Once Kennedy resigns, he has no way to force Trump to honor such a deal. What would he do if Trump reneged — demand his seat back? A resignation is permanent, and a president’s appointment power is entirely independent (apart from the need for confirmation),” noted Hot Air’s Ed Morrisey.
Good on Caldwell for deleting her initial viral tweet, but it’s a basic principle of journalism that one does not go public with claims of this magnitude without at least getting a second source.
