Posted on 08/13/2018 10:01:04 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
The National Archives is doubling down on its refusal to respond to Democratic' requests for documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's White House tenure.
Archivist David Ferriero wrote in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, that it is the agency's policy to only respond to requests from a committee chairman, who are all Republicans.
"Accordingly, I am not in a position to change our understanding of the law or our practice in this particular instance," Ferriero said.
Feinstein sent a letter to Ferriero last week asking him to reconsider the Archives decision not to request to Democratic-only request for Kavanaugh's documents. But she faced an uphill fight after Ferriero rebuffed a similar request for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Ferriero noted to Feinstein that had consulted with his general counsel as well as the Department of Justice, which had confirmed their interpretation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and supported the Archives "longtanding and consistent practice of responding only to requests from committee chairs."
Ferriero's denial of Feinstein comes as Republicans are pressing ahead with Kavanaugh's nomination.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced on Friday that the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Kavanaugh's nomination starting on Sept. 4. The hearing, he said, would last three or four days.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) indicated that the timeline will put senators on track to have a floor vote on Kavanaugh's nomination before the Supreme Court starts its next term in October.
The timeline means that a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh is likely before the National Archives is able to fulfill Grassley’s request for documents from Kavanaugh’s time as a White House lawyer.
The agency wrote to Grassley that it wouldn’t be able to complete the request, which it expects will total more than 900,000 pages, until late October. The documents would still need to go through a final review before being turned over to the committee.
But Republicans have pledged to move his nomination anyways, arguing that a legal team for President George W. Bush is reviewing the same documents and will be able to hand over the documents at a faster pace.
The Bush legal team cleared a second tranche of documents—totaling roughly 88,000 pages—from Kavanaugh's time as a White House lawyer for public release on Sunday. Democrats have fumed over the GOP tactics, arguing Republicans are trying to cherry pick what parts of Kavanaugh's records get released publicly.
They want the National Archives to hand over documents from Kavanaugh's work as a staff secretary for the Bush White House, arguing it would shed light on his legal thinking on controversial issues like torture or surveillance.
Republicans have refused to request the paperwork, accusing Democrats of going on a "fishing expedition" that could slow-walk Kavanaugh's nomination. Because Democrats are in the minority, they are powerless to force the Archives to hand over Kavanaugh's staff secretary work.
Senate Judiciary Democrats, in a hail-mary move, filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests last week for Kavanaugh's paperwork, including documents from the three-year period he was staff secretary.
The National Archives is giving the request, spearheaded by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), an expedited review process as it decides what, if any, documents to hand over.
Apparently elections have consequences. :)
Hey, Di Fi—maybe your Chinese driver can get some info for you . . .
Wow, that absolute traitorous, piece of human refuse is on the Judiciary Committee AND the Intelligence Committee?
Unbelievable. Well, her giving judiciary committee data to her buddies in Red China probably won’t harm national security that much.
I guess.
Ferreiro knows how to handle nuts. (Dip them in chocolate?)
The filthy bastards are looking anything they can change with the media’s help into something that will get him rejected.
The National Archives should always try to accommodate the requests of members of Congress, even if it is just a request unlikely to yield useful or relevant information.
Someday Republicans might find themselves in the minority and unable to obtain information they need.
Only traitorous RINOs could cause him to be rejected.
We have to confirm Kavanaugh to find out what he’s about.
Turnabout’s fair play, dems.
It’s my understanding this has been the policy.
The Repubs went along with the almost 1 million page request but the Dems want an additional 3 million, that’s not on ridiculous it’s unreasonable.
on = only
Anyone with half a brain cell (which leaves out almost all Dems) can see that this is nothing but a delay tactic by the Dems in hopes their fortunes in the mid terms will change the status quo in their favor and to keep their vulnerable Senators from having to take a vote before those mid terms. The Dems are going to vote no anyway, so they don’t need all those documents.
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