Technology

Facebook might be doing its best to stay out of political scandals in the latter half of 2018, but the company had a presence, front and center, at one of the most contentious Senate hearings in modern history.

Facebookvice president of Global Public Policy, Joel Kaplan, was spotted sitting prominently near his wife, Laura Cox Kaplan, in the section for Brett Kavanaughsupporters. He is pictured on the left side of the header image, second row, in a blue tie.

For reference, below is an image of Kaplan to the immediate right of Mark Zuckerberg during a Senate Judiciary joint hearing in April of this year.

WASHINGTON, DC & APRIL 10: Facebook co-founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg concludes his testimony before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Kaplan has not made any public commentary on Twitter or Facebook about his support for the Supreme Court nominee, though, through retweets, Kaplanwife appears to be of the mind that the hearing is part of a &smear campaign& against the family friend.

Kaplan is also featured in this viral image, making the rounds on Twitter.

His appearance during the hearing is a show of personal support, though it still turns heads for such a prominent Facebook employee to make a visible statement during such a politically divisive event. Kaplan is not representing Facebook in a formal capacity.

Kaplan served as a policy adviser on George W. Bush2000 election campaign and went on to serve as a policy assistant to the president and as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a deputy chief of staff. Kavanaugh worked for the Bush administration during the same period, joining the former presidentlegal team and going on to work on the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court.

Kaplan joined Facebook in 2011 as its VP of U.S. public policy. Kaplan continues to serve in a heavily influential political role with the company today, leading its Washington D.C. office, which serves as the companylobbying arm.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk described fraud charges filed Thursday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission an &unjustified action& that has left him &deeply saddened and disappointed& in a statement sent to TechCrunch.

The SEC alleges in a complaint filed against the CEO that Musklied when he tweeted on August 7 that he had &funding secured& for a takeover of the company at $420 per share. The SEC complaint, filed in federal district court in the Southern District of New York, identified the tweets as &false and misleading.&

Here is Muskentire statement:

&This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed. I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show Inever compromised this in any way.&

In August, Musk sent a tweet that he had secured funding and was considering taking Tesla private. The tweet wasn&t warmly embraced by the Tesla board or many shareholders and itwhat prompted theSEC to investigate.

Musktweets caused Teslastock price to jump by more than 6 percent on August 7, and led to significant market disruption, according to the SECcomplaint. The SEC alleges that Musk violated antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, and is seeking a permanent injunction, disgorgement and civil penalties. The commission also wants to bar the billionaire entrepreneur from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

The securities fraud complaint caused shares to plummet more than 13% in after-hours trading.

Several weeks later the company posted a blog announcing that Tesla willremain a public company.

The SECinvestigation is continuing, according to the organization.

Update: Therea live stream of the SEC press conference detailing the complaint:

The Securities and Exchange Commission lodged a complaint today against Elon Musk following tweets sent last month by the CEOinvolving a planned private takeover of the electric car company at $420 a share.

The filing from the Southern District of New York identifies the tweets as &false and misleading,& adding:

Muskstatements, disseminated via Twitter, falsely indicated that, should he so choose, it was virtually certain that he could take Tesla private at a purchase price that reflected a substantial premium over Tesla stockthen-current share price, that funding for this multi-billion dollar transaction had been secured, and that the only contingency was a shareholder vote. In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source.

In addition to the August 7 &funding secured& statement, the document identifies three additional tweets,

1. My hope is *all* current investors remain with Tesla even if we&re private. Would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with Tesla.
2. Shareholders could either to [sic] sell at 420 or hold shares - go private.&
3. Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that itcontingent on a shareholder vote.

Musk responded to the complaint, calling it an &unjustified action.& The company&sstock price just took a massive dipon the news.