Kavanaugh review digs 1 million pages deep

Senators squabble over which records relevant

WASHINGTON – Senators have begun the deepest dive ever into the writings of a Supreme Court nominee, digging into a record 1-million-plus pages of legal opinions and emails from Brett Kavanaugh’s career as a federal judge, White House attorney and assistant to the prosecutor who investigated President Bill Clinton.

The volume of Kavanaugh’s records dwarfs those of the past two Supreme Court justices to be confirmed: Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan. Senators reviewed about 182,000 pages of documents on Gorsuch and about 170,000 pages on Kagan.

More documents will be produced about Kavanaugh than any other high court nominee in history, said Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Despite the mound of electronic paper that senators will soon get on Kavanaugh, Democrats and Republicans battle over whether they should have access to more as they debate the merits of President Donald Trump’s nominee. The fight centers on whether senators should see emails and other documents from Kavanaugh’s three years as staff secretary to President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2006.

As staff secretary, Kavanaugh managed the paper flow in the White House, choosing which documents should go directly to the president and which advisers should provide more information on certain subjects to help Bush make decisions.

Grassley sent a letter Friday to National Archives staff at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Texas, seeking emails and other documents from Kavanaugh’s jobs in 2001 to 2003 as associate White House counsel and senior associate White House counsel. Grassley did not ask for emails and other papers from Kavanaugh’s time as staff secretary, which angered Democrats on the committee.

Democrats countered by sending their own letter to the National Archives on Tuesday, requesting all records from Kavanaugh’s five years at the White House. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he expected a response by Friday.

“Documents from his time as staff secretary are critical to understanding his knowledge of and involvement with torture, warrantless wiretapping and the use of (presidential) signing

statements, to name just a few key issues,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “Republicans are claiming that Kavanaugh was nothing more than a paper pusher who told President Bush what was for lunch. That’s false, not to mention ridiculous.”

Grassley said Democrats were trying to stall Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote by demanding scores of emails that wouldn’t provide any real insight into the judge’s legal views. Grassley wants the Judiciary Committee to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination this fall and send its recommendation to the full Senate for a vote before the midterm elections Nov. 6.

“These documents are both the least relevant to Judge Kavanaugh’s legal thinking and the most sensitive to the executive branch,” Grassley said. “The staff secretary is the inbox and outbox to the Oval Office. Passing through the staff secretary’s office are a wide range of communications: from requests for flying the flag at half-mast to the daily lunch menu to draft speeches to sensitive national security papers.”

Grassley said it would waste months on a “taxpayer-funded fishing expedition” to review millions of pages that crossed Kavanaugh’s desk while he was staff secretary. “This is not about anything other than obstruction – to bury us in millions and millions of pages of paper so we cannot have a confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh this year,” he said.

Kavanaugh would replace Anthony Kennedy, who retired from the court Tuesday. The court is in recess but will reconvene Oct. 1 with only eight members unless a new justice is confirmed.

Schumer said Senate Republicans were trying to “fool” senators by touting the volume of pages produced on Kavanaugh. “Senate Republicans and the White House are going to unprecedented lengths to withhold Judge Kavanaugh’s full record from public view, raising the obvious question, ‘What are they hiding?’ ” he said. “When it comes to the judge’s record, the public may see quantity, but not quality.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said most Democrats have made clear they oppose Kavanaugh, so the documents don’t really matter to them. Most Democrats view Kavanaugh as too conservative on issues such as abortion, gun control and workers’ rights.

“No matter how many documents are produced, many of our Democratic colleagues are making it abundantly clear they will never support his nomination. Never,” McConnell said.

Senators have access to 307 opinions Kavanaugh wrote in his past 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They can read hundreds more opinions he joined and 6,168 pages he submitted in response to a questionnaire from the Judiciary Committee.

“No matter how many documents are produced, many of our Democratic colleagues are making it abundantly clear they will never support his nomination. Never.”

Mitch McConnell Senate majority leader

Grassley said the committee expected to soon receive up to 1 million more pages of documents from Kavanaugh’s time in the White House counsel’s office and working for the defunct Office of the Independent Counsel.

Kavanaugh was an associate independent counsel for Ken Starr, whose investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s financial dealings uncovered the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House in 1998. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate.

Senators and their staffs will use special review software for the first time to allow them to search quickly through Kavanaugh’s records.

That means senators don’t have to actually read more than 1 million pages.

“The committee will use sophisticated technology to conduct a thorough review,” Grassley said.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh