Buttigieg campaign returns donations from Kavanaugh’s lawyers: report

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s (D) presidential campaign announced Wednesday it will return donations from lawyers who represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. 

The campaign will send back thousands of dollars in donations to two top lawyers for Kavanaugh, saying it would not accept money from people who helped get the justice confirmed, The Guardian reported.  

Alexandra Walsh gave $7,200 to the campaign, of which $3,150 was returned due to donation limits, and Beth Wilkinson provided $2,800 to the campaign, according to The Guardian. 

The campaign told the news outlet that it made a mistake in accepting the donations after disregarding the lawyers’ role in the controversial confirmation hearing.

“With nearly 700,000 donors, a contribution we would otherwise refuse sometimes gets through,” the campaign said in a statement to The Hill. “We believe the women who have courageously spoken out about Brett Kavanaugh’s assault and misconduct, and we thank the Guardian for bringing this contribution to our attention.”

The lawyers typically give campaign donations to Democratic candidates. Wilkinson has donated $1,000 to Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) campaign and $2,800 to Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-Colo.) campaign. She also gave $2,800 to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) back when the senator was in the race. 

The lawyers’ law firm represented Kavanaugh after Christine Blasey Ford alleged he had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers in Maryland. Walsh and Wilkinson received criticism for defending their client by saying the judge was being schemed by an “outrageous” campaign, according to The Guardian.

Walsh declined to comment to The Hill. Wilkinson, the Harris campaign, the Bennet campaign and Gillibrand’s office did not immediately return requests for comment.