Facebook’s public policy chief Joel Kaplan sat closely behind Brett Kavanaugh during his explosive Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.

He attended the hearing in a personal capacity.

Kaplan worked with Kavanaugh during the period he served in George W. Bush’s White House administration.

Read Business Insider’s coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh Senate grilling here.

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.

https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/1045422396436631552?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

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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