WASHINGTON – Chief Justice John Roberts has received more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints against Brett Kavanaugh in recent weeks but has chosen for the time being not to refer them to a judicial panel for investigation.

A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — the court on which Kavanaugh served — sent a string of complaints to Roberts starting three weeks ago, four people familiar with the matter said.

That judge, Karen LeCraft Henderson, had dismissed other complaints against Kavanaugh as frivolous, but she concluded that some were substantive enough that they should not be handled by Kavanaugh's fellow judges in the D.C. Circuit.

In a statement Saturday, Henderson acknowledged the complaints and said they centered on statements Kavanaugh made during his Senate confirmation hearings.

Under the law, "any person may file a misconduct complaint in the circuit in which the federal judge sits," she said in the statement. "The complaints do not pertain to any conduct in which Judge Kavanaugh engaged as a judge. The complaints seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States."

The complaints were handed over as scrutiny of Kavanaugh was intensifying amid allegations of sexual assault.

Washington Post