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Facebook's policy chief was sat closely behind Brett Kavanaugh during his explosive Senate grilling

By Rob Price and Jake Kanter
Brett_Kavanaugh_Joel_Kaplan
Joel Kaplan watches Brett Kavanaugh's hearing. Reuters/Business Insider
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One of Facebook's most senior executives spent Thursday watching Brett Kavanaugh's dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Joel Kaplan, vice president for US public policy at Facebook, sat prominently among the onlookers throughout Kavanaugh's testimony, as the judge sought to dispel accusations he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford.

New York Times reporter Mike Isaac was among those who spotted Kaplan, who was said to be there in a personal capacity and not on Facebook duty. He declined to comment when approached by Business Insider reporter Joe Perticone following the hearing.

The exact reason he was in the gallery is not clear, but the pair do have history. Kaplan served as deputy chief of staff for policy under President George W. Bush between 2006 and 2009.

He was in the front row when Kavanaugh was sworn in as judge to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June 2016. Kaplan is sat second from the right in the Getty image embedded below.

Embed from Getty Images

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Reporter Rob Price sitting at a table
Rob Price
Rob Price was a senior correspondent at Business Insider, based in San Francisco. He wrote investigations and long-form features about platforms, people, and power in Silicon Valley.His stories variously led to attorney general investigations, large-scale internal reviews at major tech companies, high-profile personnel departures, citation by state and federal lawmakers, and the closure of a well-funded startup. His 2022 story on the Bitfinex hack is being adapted into a feature film, and in 2024 he received an SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism award for his reporting on AI and relationships.Rob's scoops and exclusive stories were cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Axios, and many other national and international publications. His writing has also been published in or syndicated by The Washington Post, The Independent, Vice, Slate, and elsewhere, and he appeared on CNN, the BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC Australia, and other broadcast media to discuss technology, business, and culture.He worked for Business Insider from 2015 to 2025. Prior to joining the features team, Rob covered Facebook and Silicon Valley, and before that wrote about tech business, policy, and the gig economy in London. Between September and October 2019, he was acting executive editor for Business Insider's UK bureau. He also sat on the board of directors for the San Francisco Press Club, the leading non-profit media advocacy group in the Bay Area, and was a volunteer crew member at the Marine Mammal Center, the world's largest animal hospital for marine mammals. You can contact Rob Price via email at robaeprice@gmail.com, or +1 650-636-6268 (Signal / WhatsApp / Cell). Selected stories:— They spoke out against their employer. Then they were hit with trade secrets suits.— The rise of 'shadow stand-ins'— App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbot— Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth— Private islands, flying cars, and psychedelic parties: Inside the wild post-Google lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin— 'I want your Instagram account': First came the threatening texts, followed by the SWAT teams. Then someone wound up dead.— Inside Iconiq: How Mark Zuckerberg's banker built a secret Silicon Valley empire and made billions— Gaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreams— A drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.
Jake Kanter headshot
Jake Kanter
Jake Kanter is Business Insider's Executive Editor in the UK. As well as helping oversee the entire London newsroom, he has specific oversight of Tech. He joined Business Insider in July 2016 from TV trade magazine, Broadcast, where he was News Editor.
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