Kavanaugh paper trail might color hearing

WASHINGTON » The paper chase is on.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s opponents are digging through documents at President George W. Bush’s library in Texas and other repositories around the country looking for anything that could help derail his nomination.

The trail of documents is extensive as Kavanaugh spent five years in the Bush White House and 12 years as a federal judge. Kavanaugh supporters say they’d be shocked if anybody found anything that would taint a man they say has unquestioned integrity.

During his past 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he has written roughly 300 opinions and law review articles.

Before that, he spent two years in the White House counsel’s office and three years as staff secretary where he had eyeballs on nearly everything Bush saw, signed and said. Tens of thousands of pages of documents crossed Kavanaugh’s desk and if lawmakers demand to see the bulk of them, the Senate confirmation process could be a drawn-out affair.

The archival staff at the Bush library in Dallas is working to provide access to open records related to Kavanaugh’s White House years. The National Archives says the documents are being compiled on one webpage as was done for the records of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Trump’s first pick for the high court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which will vote on the nomination, has been in preliminary discussions with various places that maintain records from Kavanaugh’s public service.

The panel also has asked Kavanaugh to provide information about his work for Bush, and for independent counsel Kenneth Star’s team, where Kavanaugh cowrote the report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

In questionnaires sent out last Friday, the committee also asked about his work on the Bush campaign effort to halt the recount of votes in Florida in the disputed 2000 election.