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More than a decade after serving as an "inbox," Brett Kavanaugh's role as Secretary-General to President George W. Bush has become a critical point as Republicans push his confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Democrats want to see documents from the time, potentially depicting millions of documents as essential to understanding his approach to the law. Republicans disagree and have accused Democrats of using the issue to try to delay Kavanaugh's confirmation.
The debate could interfere with the Republicans' goal of quickly confirming President Trump's choice for the court in time for the start of the new term. With the slim Senate control held by Republicans 51-49, Democrats can not block Kavanaugh's nomination outright if Republicans stand together. Instead, the Democrats are trying to delay the proceedings in the hope that the time spent examining the judge's record could dig up new concerns to influence senators' opinions and overturn the vote [19659004]. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee charged with holding hearings on Kavanaugh's appointment, said this week that "the inflated demands of the Democrats are an obvious attempt to impede the confirmation process."
DN.Y., said on Thursday that Kavanaugh himself described his three years as Bush's secretary of staff as "most interesting and, in many ways, among the most instructive" to his work as as judge of the Federal Court of Appeal. Schumer said that if Kavanaugh saw it like this, "why should the American people not see what was asked of them?"
Kavanaugh spent nearly three years, from July 2003 to May 2006, as secretary of staff, documents to and from the President, including ensuring that the individuals involved weighed and forwarded questions and comments from the chair on this material to the right people. As Staff Secretary, Kavanaugh also played a key role in the President's speaking process, helped put in place legislation, and worked on drafting and revising executive orders. -he says. He also traveled with the president, in meetings between the president and foreign leaders.
While Kavanaugh was the staff secretary, Bush made a series of controversial decisions, including a partial ban on abortion and constitutional support. amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. Democrats say that time is relevant to Kavanaugh's views and to philosophy as a judge.
But Republicans contend that staff secretary's papers are not helpful because Kavanaugh's job was not to provide his own advice. President. They say that the documents contain the most sensitive documents from the White House, advice sent directly to the president. Republicans say they support, as do the Democrats, the publication of documents related to Kavanaugh's time at the White House office, which immediately preceded his job as secretary of staff. And they say that the million documents they plan to publish will be the largest number of documents produced in connection with an appointment to the Supreme Court.
Karen Hult, professor of political science at Virginia Tech and co-author of a staff secretary paper for which Kavanaugh was interviewed in 2008, took an interim view of the value of staff secretary documents for legislators. Hult said the documents could include notes and memos from Kavanaugh that he wrote or commented directly to the president or chief of staff, but she said that it might be difficult to distil Kavanaugh's own opinions. Kavanaugh's judicial opinions would be more useful in this regard, she says.
Still, "I would not say it's a waste of time," she says, looking at the documents. "I would say that it's not a priority use of time."
Kavanaugh, for his part, described his role as staff secretary as "an honest broker for the president, someone who tries to make sure that political views on various topics are presented to the public. President in a fair and impartial manner. "In an interview conducted in 2008 with Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, Hult's co-author, Kavanaugh stated that it was important that he maintain a" strict neutrality and impartiality "by bringing in disagreements over the wording of proposals or decisions to the President
. During his tenure, they began weekly meetings with Bush and a few others to discuss the speeches. He said that this allowed him to "better fulfill his function of arbitrator" between speech writers and policy advisors
The debate over the documents of the secretary of staff went back and forth between the parties the whole week. On the Republican side, Grassley said the most valuable documents revealing Kavanaugh's legal thinking are his more than 300 judicial opinions while Kavanaugh's period documents as secretary of staff are the least relevant to his legal thinking. Describing the staff secretary's position as "oval office inbox and office," he stated that the occupier's job is not "to provide his own substantive work product" but of his Ensure that the president "sees notes and political documents". offices. On the Democrats' side, Schumer wrote in a letter to Grassley on Tuesday that there was "no reason to withhold Kavanaugh's staff secretary's file." "Of the Senators' Review." He accused the Republicans of being against transparency.He said Wednesday that Kavanaugh was nominated for: "This is one of the most important positions in the world and certainly in America, should not we know everything? "
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Associated Press Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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