Dems remain wary of Kavanaugh

WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court pick, shouldn’t become a justice unless he vows to recuse himself from U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Since Kavanaugh was nominated on July 9, Blumenthal — a Connecticut Democrat and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee — has been particularly critical of the nominee’s views about executive power, especially his opinion that a sitting president should be able to exempt himself from criminal investigation.

“This issue of presidential power is not really a political issue, it’s a constitutional concern and it goes to the core of the checks and balances that underlie our Constitution,” Blumenthal said.

The nominee has a paper trail of opinions and writings that hint at possible decisions he might make on the highest court, some of which Blumenthal pointed to as evidence of a conflict of interest between Trump and Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s campaign connections to Russia.

During confirmation hearings, Blumenthal said, he’ll ask Kavanaugh general questions about his views on checks and balances and executive power based on his past writings.

In one instance, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the 1974 United States v. Nixon case that former President Richard Nixon should hand over secretly recorded White House tapes. But Kavanaugh said the Nixon decision could be overruled because the Justice Department — which is also in the executive branch — can’t force the president to present information in a criminal case.

From Blumenthal’s perspective, Kavanaugh is saying that “presidents would not only be free to reject burdensome, unfair or otherwise problematic requests for information; they would also be free to reject all requests for information.”

“Some observers might find it reassuring to think that Kavanaugh would not rule as his writings suggest,” Blumenthal said. “That would be a mistake. It would be far wiser to listen to the message that he has sent for decades — and to do so before it’s too late.”

Democratic lawmakers including Blumenthal have also targeted Kavanaugh’s opposition to the independent counsel law, enacted in 1978, that allowed an independent prosecutor to investigate government officials for criminal be-

havior. The law expired in 1992.

Since then, the Justice Department has appointed special counsels when the attorney general deems them necessary. Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the FBI’s ongoing Trump-Russia investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller.

But Republicans have differentiated between the former law that Kavanaugh opposed and the current method used to appoint special counsels. They reject the notion that Kavanaugh must recuse himself if the Mueller probe ever comes before the Supreme Court.

“This is an issue where I feel the public and my colleagues need to better understand the importance of unchecked presidential power, especially with Donald Trump in that position,” Blumenthal said.

The schedule for confirmation hearings has not yet been released, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that he would likely begin the process in the fall, ahead of the November midterm elections. Most GOP lawmakers, who hold a majority in the Senate, support Trump’s pick.