The top Senate Democrat tried to rope former President George W. Bush into the fight over the new Supreme Court pick, saying Friday it’s up to Mr. Bush to make sure Congress has the documents it needs to vet and approve the nominee.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer fired off a letter to Mr. Bush telling him to order his presidential library to make public all of the records it holds from Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who served as a White House lawyer and staff secretary for Mr. Bush before he won his seat on an appeals court in 2006.
“You have been an advocate of transparency regarding your presidential records, and you have previously taken steps to make portions of your Library’s collection of White House documents more available to the public. I believe that making Judge Kavanaugh’s complete record public is consistent with your commitment to transparency and is strongly in the public interest,” Mr. Schumer wrote.
Those records from Judge Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush White House have become a major political hurdle as Republicans seek to push for speedy confirmation.
Democrats, most of whom who have already declared their opposition to Judge Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court even without the documents, are hoping to find a smoking gun within the papers that they can use to convince several Republicans to break with the GOP.
Republicans have said they are open to “reasonable” requests, but have said they won’t allow the document quest to delay confirmation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said a floor vote will happen before the November election, while other Republicans say they want a Justice Kavanaugh installed before the Supreme Court begins its new term in early October.
Mr. Schumer said he fears Republicans will find a way to scrub Kavanaugh records from the Bush archives through a pre-release review.
Mr. Schumer said he doesn’t object to Mr. Bush having a chance to review records — a standard part of releases this soon after an administration — but he wants the Archivist of the United States to be more intimately involved in decisions.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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