The president of the United States keeps opening his mouth about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s tumultuous confirmation process, tugging me back into that fray.

I won’t plunge directly into the back-and-forth of that debate, but I do want to say something briefly about Donald Trump’s apology to Justice Kavanaugh and his family. He delivered the apology at the start of a White House ceremonial swearing in of the new justice.

He said that Kavanaugh was “proven innocent” of the allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman when the two of them were teenagers in the early 1980s.

Umm. How do I say this? No. He wasn’t proven innocent of anything.

The FBI came back with that perfunctory “investigation” into the allegation. It determined there was no “corroborating evidence” to back up the accusation delivered by Christine Blasey Ford.

That, Mr. President, does not constitute a declaration of “innocence.” It said the FBI couldn’t verify a contention. It doesn’t wipe the allegation away.

My request now is this: Let the new justice get to work, Mr. President … and keep your mouth shut. You, too, have more relevant things to keep you busy.