Kavanaugh begins Senate rounds

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a whirlwind round of meetings with key Republican senators as Democrats ramped up efforts to block his confirmation.

Kavanaugh, the conservative appellate court judge and President Donald Trump’s choice to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, was meeting separately with at least five members of the Judiciary Committee. The panel will launch confirmation hearings later this summer.

But Kavanaugh has an unusually long paper trail for senators to review, including judicial rulings and documents from his tenure in the George W. Bush administration and on Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton. Aides say it could take weeks to assemble those materials.

Democrats, as the Senate minority, have few options to block Kavanaugh. But they can use the time to make the case that confirming Kavanaugh will tilt the court too far to the right.

No date has been set for confirmation hearings. But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who also met with Kavanaugh on Wednesday — and, as a former attorney general, once worked with him during practice for a session before the court — said he was hopeful the committee could begin its work during the final week of August.

Republicans want to have Kavanaugh confirmed by the start of the court’s session in October and before the midterm election.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has asked federal prosecutors to help review Kavanaugh’s documents in an email sent this week to the nation’s 93 U.S. attorneys. Rosenstein asked each office to provide up to three federal prosecutors “who can make this important project a priority for the next several weeks.”