More tumult on The Hill
Possible dismissal of Sessions fill-in joins Kavanaugh controversy
The nation’s capital is accustomed to a single all-consuming controversy but on Monday, two simultaneous upheavals were shifting its tectonic plates: Brett Kavanaugh’s battered Supreme Court confirmation bid and DOJ No. 2 Rod Rosenstein’s brush with dismissal.
Of the two, the Kavanaugh controversy involving now multiple accusations of sexual misconduct continued to percolate while the Rosenstein drama got put on hold until Thursday when he meets with President Donald Trump at the White House.
In a letter Monday to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-iowa, and the committee’s leading Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, Kavanaugh insisted he would not back down.
“These are smears, pure and simple,” Kavanaugh wrote. “The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not
drive me out.”
Over the weekend, Senate Judiciary members agreed on a Thursday appearance for Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychologist who alleges a “stumbling drunk” Kavanaugh groped her and put his hand over her mouth at a high school party in suburban Washington in the early 1980s.
But at the same time, the New Yorker published an account of a second accuser, Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez, who said Kavanaugh exposed himself at a party while both were in college.
And on top of that, lawyer Michael Avenatti said he was representing a client who would come forward Wednesday with yet another account of sexual abuse by Kavanaugh. Avenatti is best known as the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who received $130,000 prior to the 2016 election from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to ensure her silence about having sex with Trump.
Lawmakers of both parties staggered under the weight of the various allegations, with many wondering where it would end and whether Blasey Ford’s scheduled appearance Thursday would even take place.
In New York City for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Trump defended the 53-year-old D.C. federal appeals court judge.
“His family has suffered,” Trump said. “What’s going on is not something that should happen. Brett Kavanaugh is an absolute outstanding person. Hopefully, he will be confirmed quickly.”
On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., called the allegations against Kavanaugh part of a “shameful, shameful smear campaign” that has “hit a new low.”
Democrats hope to delay a confirmation vote by the Senate’s Republican majority or sink the nomination altogether. Successfully playing out the clock could give them time enough to see if Democrats take back the Senate on Election Day. Democrats need to retain
their 26 incumbents and defeat two Republicans during the midterms.
On Monday, Democrats rallied around a call for a full — and potentially time-consuming — FBI investigation before Blasey Ford or any other witness testifies.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer described his Republican counterpart Mcconnell, as “someone who is in a pickle,” and has “dug a deep hole.”
“If you really believed these allegations are part of a despicable smear job, why don’t you call for an FBI investigation?” Schumer said. “What are you afraid of? What are you hiding? What is Judge Kavanaugh hiding?”
Although the House has no role in the Supreme Court confirmation process, Rep. John Faso, R-kinderhook, expressed sympathy for Kavanaugh.
“I don’t know how you prove or disprove something that happened 35 years ago, and maybe something unknowable,” he said.
Schumer and other Senate Democrats “declared opposition to Kavanaugh
from the moment he was nominated. They said they would stop at nothing to defeat him. So I don’t think their words have credibility,” Faso said.
Faso is seeking a second term in a tight race against Democratic challenger Antonio Delgado, who tweeted Monday: “The allegations against Judge Kavanaugh must be taken seriously. Any attempts at silencing his accusers in a cloud of political cynicism are disparaging towards all women & survivors.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-willsboro, “believes that Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee,” said her spokesman, Tom Flanagin.
Meanwhile, Rod Rosenstein is the Justice Department’s No. 2 behind Attorney General Jeff Sessions. When Sessions recused himself last year from supervision of the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller — which President Trump has repeatedly labelled a “hoax” — Rosenstein took it over.
A career federal prosecutor who formerly was U.S. attorney in Maryland, Rosenstein has defended the integrity and independence of the Mueller probe. Trump’s wrath has been trained less on Rosenstein than on Sessions for recusing himself in the first place.
Sessions recused himself because of questions raised last year over his own interactions with Russians — a potential conflict in supervising a probe into Russian intelligence efforts to swing the 2016 election to Trump.
According to various media accounts, Rosenstein spoke to White House officials about resigning in the wake of a New York Times story that said he had discussed invoking the 25th Amendment, which provides an avenue for removing presidents unable to carry out their duties because of illness or other incapacity.
Rosenstein also allegedly discussed secretly recording the president, presumably to facilitate the removal process.
The story reportedly outraged Trump. Rosenstein vigorously denied the charges but discussed possible resignation with the White House over the weekend, according to reports from the Associated Press and other news outlets.
Rosenstein went to the White House on Monday expecting to be fired, according to those accounts.
Instead, he was still in his post after meeting with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and also speaking to Trump by phone. Trump said the two would meet Thursday when he is back in Washington.
“We will be determining what to do,” Trump told reporters in New York on Monday. “I spoke with Rod today and we’ll see what happens.”
If Rosenstein quits or is fired, the Mueller probe would then be under the direction of the Justice Department’s No.3 official, Solicitor General Noel Francisco, a Syracuse native.