Shifting strategy, Democrats to begin meeting with Kavanaugh

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein plan to begin meeting with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when senators start returning to Washington in mid-August.

Most Democrats had refused to meet with Kavanaugh while leaders sparred with Republicans over access to records from his time as White House staff secretary. Up to now, only one Democratic senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, had elected to meet with the nominee.

A senior Democratic aide says the senators will demand records from Kavanaugh directly and question him about their contents.

The aide says Democrats intend to demand that Kavanaugh call for and support the release of all of his files from his time serving as staff secretary for President George W. Bush.

The chief of the National Archives on Friday rejected a request from Senate Democrats for non-public records generated during Kavanaugh’s three years in the White House.

Schumer made a personal appeal to David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, for the records. He called Ferriero after a formal request from Feinstein, the lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, for non-public records preserved as required by the Presidential Records Act.

Feinstein had said Ferriero’s “restrictive reading of the law results in one political party having complete control over what records the Senate will be able to see before deciding whether a nominee should receive a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.”