Dems urge: Nix hearing on Supreme

Democrats are saying that Michael Cohen’s implication of President Trump in criminal conduct is cause for a pause regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked Wednesday that the Senate Judiciary Committee delay its confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh in light of the assertion by Trump’s former lawyer that then-candidate Trump was involved in a hush money scheme that criminally violated federal campaign finance laws.

“It is unseemly for the President of the United States to be picking a Supreme Court justice who could soon be effectively a juror in a case involving the President himself,” Schumer said from the Senate floor. “The prospect of the President being implicated in some criminal case is no longer a hypothetical that can be dismissed.”

Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy last month. His hearing before the Senate panel is slated to begin Sept. 4.

Republicans, who control the House and the Senate, have made no indication that they are open to the idea of delaying the proceedings.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (RIowa), who heads the Judiciary Committee, said through a spokesman the confirmation would go on as scheduled.

Kanavaugh’s confirmation was already expected to stir a grueling partisan fight, but Cohen’s guilty plea has further complicated the appointment.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (DHawaii) called off a sitdown Wednesday with Kavanaugh.

“I am canceling, I will be canceling, my appointment with Judge Kavanaugh because I choose not to extend a courtesy to this President who is an unindicted co-conspirator,” she said in a statement. “A judge who has been nominated because the President expects him to protect him.”

Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to bank and tax fraud. He also said that a “candidate” directed him to pay a pair of women during the 2016 campaign to stay silent about their alleged affairs with Trump.