Senate Democrats said Thursday they’re preparing to sue the National Archives to force it to release papers from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s background.
Democrats sent a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this month to the Archives demanding millions of pages of documents from Judge Kavanaugh’s time working as staff secretary for President George W. Bush’s White House, and said if they don’t get an answer they’ll file the lawsuit to compel production.
Republicans have requested documents related to Judge Kavanaugh’s time working in the White House Counsel’s Office from 2001 to 2003, but have not asked for millions more pages from his time as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said they need to see all of the records, which officials have estimated could total 4 million pages.
“We would much rather follow the bipartisan process that’s been around for years. Mitch McConnell is tearing down all of the bipartisan parts of approving judicial nominees,” Mr. Schumer said.
“With this suit, we can finally shine some light on Kavanaugh’s record,” he added.
Democrats are hoping to find landmines in Judge Kavanaugh’s past that could derail his nomination.
On Thursday they claimed to have found just those sorts of indications in the documents already turned over to the committee.
Senior Democrats on the Judiciary Committee said they have questions about whether Judge Kavanaugh misled the committee during his 2006 confirmation hearing for his current post on the federal circuit appeals court in Washington, D.C., when he said he wasn’t involved in decisions about policies regarding detainees in the war on terrorism.
The senior Democrats said some public documents already hint that Judge Kavanaugh was involved — and they said in a new letter Thursday that some of the Bush documents “undercut” the judge’s version.
Those new documents were provided to the committee but haven’t been made public. The Democrats demanded they be released so they can be part of the confirmation debate.
“We firmly believe that Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination cannot be considered unless these documents are available, including to the public and the Senate as a whole,” the letter read.
The Democrats also disputed Republicans’ claims of unprecedented transparency, saying that as of Thursday morning just 2 percent of the Archives documents relating to Judge Kavanaugh had been released.
“The truth should not be hidden from the Senate or the American people,” they added.
Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and Judiciary Committee chairman, said senators have had 57 days to fully vet Judge Kavanaugh from his official nomination to his hearing, which is more time than they had for Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch.
“This longer period of time is just another example of how this is the most transparent confirmation process of all time,” he said, adding the committee has received roughly 250,000 pages of documents from the nominee’s time in the Bush administration.
He said that’s more than any previous Supreme Court nominee.
“Unfortunately, some have tried to criticize what is the most transparent confirmation process in history. But they’re failing. And they’re failing because Democratic leaders have made their true goal obvious: Stall the confirmation as long as possible,” Mr. Grassley said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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