The Day

TRUMP TO WITHHOLD 100,000 PAGES OF KAVANAUGH’S WHITE HOUSE RECORDS FROM HIS BUSH ADMINISTRA­TION TENURE

- — The Washington Post

Washington — President Donald Trump will not release more than 100,000 pages of records from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s tenure in the George W. Bush White House, claiming they would be covered by executive privilege.

The White House’s decision was disclosed in a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday ahead of Kavanaugh’s confirmati­on hearings this week. A Bush representa­tive who has led a team of attorneys reviewing Kavanaugh’s papers confirmed that lawyers have finished going through the records and have turned over about 415,000 pages to the committee, although about 147,000 of those pages are being withheld from public view.

“President Bush directed us to proceed expeditiou­sly and to err as much as appropriat­e on the side of transparen­cy and disclosure, and we believe we have done so,” attorney Bill Burck, who serves as Bush’s presidenti­al records representa­tive, wrote to the committee.

Burck said in the letter that 101,921 pages are not being given to the committee because the White House believes they are protected by presidenti­al privilege and, after discussion­s with the Justice Department, “has directed that we not provide these documents for this reason.”

The Presidenti­al Records Act allows both the former administra­tion and the current White House to claim privilege on presidenti­al documents. A White House spokesman, Raj Shah, said Saturday that he will let the letter, first reported by the Associated Press, speak for itself. Trump has not officially invoked executive privilege over the documents.

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