Brett Kavanaugh was officially sworn-in as a Supreme Court justice over the weekend, but the White House hosted a ceremonial event on Monday, where President Trump apologized to the judge "for the terrible pain and suffering" that he and his family endured throughout the confirmation process. Trump even said that Kavanaugh was "proven innocent" of the sexual assault allegations made against him.
"Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception," Trump said to members of the press, Congress, and Kavanaugh and his family, among others.
To Trump, the events of the confirmation process "violated every notion of fairness, decency and due process."
"You sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent," Trump said. According to CNN, the FBI probe that was conducted into the allegations against Kavanaugh "found no corroboration." However, some claim that there was never a "full" investigation.
When it was Kavanaugh's turn to speak in the East Room on Monday, he said that the confirmation process "tested" him, but "it did not change me. My approach to judging remains the same."
"I take this office with gratitude and no bitterness," Kavanaugh said. "On the Supreme Court I will seek to be a force for stability and unity."
He also announced that he's hired a group of all-women clerks, an apparent first in the history of the Supreme Court.