The GoFundMe page set up in support of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh passed the $500,000 mark on Wednesday after being set up eight days ago, according to reports from USA Today .
The fundraiser was set up by John Hawkins of the conservative website Right Wing News . When Hawkins launched the GoFundMe, he said it was done out of his disgust about the treatment that Kavanaugh and his family had been receiving from the media. Since his nomination, Kavanaugh has faced several allegations of sexual misconduct during his high school and college years.
The FBI is currently conducting an investigation into the Kavanaugh allegations, with expectations that the probe could be complete by Wednesday.
“We live in a country where innocent until proven guilty is supposed to mean something,” wrote Hawkins on the GoFundMe page. “Yet Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation is being dragged through the mud while his family is facing non-stop death threats,”
During his testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh said that his family had been “permanently destroyed.”
Hawkins plans to present the money raised to the Kavanaugh family and allow them to use it to invest in their protection or “however they see fit.” He has been in contact with a staff member at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit since launching the fundraiser and told USA Today that the gesture was appreciated. While Hawkins does not know if Kavanaugh is aware of the fundraiser, it has amassed the support of more than 11,000 people and reached $540,162 out of its $550,000 goal.
In a Right Wing News blog post that Hawkins wrote about the GoFundMe, he pointed out that the success of the fundraiser echoes the support that the public has for Kavanaugh.
GoFundMe for Brett Kavanaugh’s family surpasses $500,000 https://t.co/isFtAduRyR
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 3, 2018
“Money talks and seeing the numbers swell up on a GoFundMe is proof that there are a lot of people other than talking heads on Twitter backing Kavanaugh,” wrote Hawkins, who claimed that if Kavanaugh could be found guilty for those allegations, “Why not any man?” or “Why not any Republican?”
“If a man who [has] been through six FBI background checks and has by all accounts led a good and virtuous life can be destroyed by little more than an accusation without evidence, then what chance do other men have in that same situation?” Hawkins told USA Today .
A GoFundMe that has been set up for Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford has found almost equal success since it was set up, raising $528,500 in the two weeks since it was launched.
