WASHINGTON -- The chief of the National Archives has rejected a request from Senate Democrats for non-public records generated during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's tenure as staff secretary for President George W. Bush.
Kavanaugh's three years as staff secretary have become a focal point in the confirmation battle because the Judiciary Committee couldn't reach agreement over the scope of the documents request.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., made a personal appeal to David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, for the records. He called Ferriero after a formal request from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, for non-public records preserved as required by the Presidential Records Act.
Feinstein had said Ferriero's "restrictive reading of the law results in one political party having complete control over what records the Senate will be able to see before deciding whether a nominee should receive a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States."
Ferriero said the National Archives and Records Administration has traditionally responded only to "special access" requests from committee chairmen, not from the senior member of the minority party on the panel. Ferriero said in a letter to Schumer dated Thursday that the practice is based on a 2001 Justice Department legal opinion.
Ferriero said the National Archives and Records Administration has declined to process similar requests from the lead Republicans on the Judiciary Committee in connection with the nominations of Attorney General Eric Holder and Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan during the administration of President Barack Obama.
Ferriero said his general counsel consulted with the Department of Justice about whether a different interpretation of the law is possible, but the department confirmed that a request for the non-public records must come from a committee chairman or the committee itself.
The National Archives and Records Administration holds several million pages of records related to Kavanaugh, which is significantly more than for previous Supreme Court nominees who worked in the White House.
Senate Democrats will begin meeting with Kavanaugh to press him privately on releasing his papers, a senior Democratic aide said Friday.
Schumer and Feinstein will start meeting with President Donald Trump's pick to succeed retired Justice Anthony Kennedy after the Senate returns from its recess on Aug. 15, a senior Senate Democratic aide said. They will press Kavanaugh on releasing his papers from his tenure as Bush's staff secretary -- which Republicans argue are irrelevant in assessing his fitness to be a justice -- and "question him about their contents."
"In addition to questioning Judge Kavanaugh on health care, women's freedom, presidential power and other issues, Senate Democrats intend to demand that he call for and support the release of all of his files from his time in the Bush White House," the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity to freely describe party strategy. "Democrats will urge Judge Kavanaugh to ask the National Archives and President Bush to adhere to the same standard that was met for Justice Kagan's confirmation."
The National Archives has started reviewing Kavanaugh's documents from his time as associate White House counsel, but said it won't finish going through all of them until late October. Still, Senate Republicans plan to go ahead with confirmation hearings in September, as a private legal team led by Bush's presidential records representative conducts a separate review of Kavanaugh's paperwork and provides them to the Senate.
Schumer raised concerns Friday that this separate process means neither the public nor senators outside of those on the Judiciary Committee would be able to see Kavanaugh's records.
"This unprecedented effort on the part of Republicans to keep hidden Judge Kavanaugh's records from the American public, and even the large majority of senators, is a new and astonishing level of secrecy," Schumer said in a statement.
Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Freking of The Associated Press and by Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post.
A Section on 08/04/2018