The National Archives on Monday released the first big batch of documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time in the independent counsel’s office in the 1990s.
Most of the documents appear to be correspondence and case files that came across Judge Kavanaugh’s desk during his time working for Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated the Clintons.
Judge Kavanaugh would later go on to work in the Bush White House before winning a seat on the federal circuit court in D.C. in 2006.
The Archives said it released 1,025 pages of documents.
The documents show Judge Kavanaugh’s role in negotiating with Congress over what information the independent counsel would make public during its investigation — similar to questions now surrounding the ongoing special counsel probe into Russia’s activities and potential involvement with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
Mr Kavanaugh’s conclusion at the time was that Congress had a right to do its own investigation that may overlap the independent counsel, but it didn’t have a right to get a look at the probe’s work.
“Congress has every right to investigation the same subjects we are investigating, but it is not clear to me that Congress has any right to piggy-back on our investigation by using our reports of interviews that have been conducted in circumstances where the witnesses reasonable expected confidentiality,” he wrote in one 1995 memo.
Mr. Starr, in a statement released by the White House, praised Judge Kavanaugh’s work for the independent counsel’s office.
“Throughout his tenure in the independent counsel’s office, Brett Kavanaugh consistently demonstrated an open-minded search for the truth He rigorously focused on the facts, and thoughtfully explored the implications of those facts in a balanced, reasoned manner,” Mr. Starr said.
Mr. Starr said Judge Kavanaugh regularly pushed for a restrained approach, delivered “mature and sound judgments” and showed “graciousness and civility.”
“He was not only brilliant in his legal and factual analysis, he was wise,” Mr. Starr said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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