Republicans’ 51-49 seat Senate majority is likely to ensure that Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court by October. However, Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings revealed serious questions about his fitness to serve on the highest court in the land that should have every Senator questioning their vote. It appears that Kavanaugh misled the Judiciary Committee about his knowledge of hacked democratic documents, passed along to him while he was working in George W. Bush’s White House Counsel’s Office.
In Bush’s White House Counsel’s Office, Kavanaugh was tasked with helping judicial nominees win confirmation. During that time, Kavanaugh received Democratic staffers’ private notes, emails and talking points that outlined how Democratic Senators planned to question Bush’s judicial nominees. The documents that Kavanaugh received were stolen by Manuel Miranda, a Republican senate aide, who hacked into the private computer files of Democratic senators and passed the contents onto Kavanaugh.
In 2003, Kavanaugh was nominated to the D.C. Circuit. During his confirmation hearings in 2004 and 2006, Kavanaugh was questioned about what he knew of Miranda’s illegal activity and if he had received any stolen information while at the White House Counsel’s Office. Kavanaugh testified under oath that he had never seen any stolen materials and didn’t know of Miranda’s illegal activity until after it became public. At the time, Senators did not have enough reason to suspect that Kavanaugh knew that materials he had received were stolen and he was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit.
However, during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, limited access to his White House documents showed that Kavanaugh had more knowledge of the theft of Democratic documents than he testified to under oath in 2004 and 2006.
Senator Leahy (D-VT) released emails from Miranda to Kavanaugh that including verbatim, undisclosed Democratic talking points, a private draft letter from Leahy to other Democratic Senator and “intel” about what Leahy was going to question a Bush nominee about during their hearing.
The revelation that Kavanaugh received information from Miranda that obviously was not obtained appropriately, raises serious questions about Kavanaugh’s prior testimony that none of the information he received from Miranda raised a “red flag” in his mind about how it was obtained.
Because Kavanaugh not only used stolen Democratic documents to advance Bush’s judicial nominees, but also lied about obtaining those documents for personal and professional gain, exemplifies why he is unfit to serve on the Supreme Court. The American people deserve better than to have a Justice on the Court who lied under oath.
Because Republicans have control of the Senate, in all likelihood, Kavanaugh will get confirmed to the Supreme Court. Therefore, if Democrats retake control of Congress after the midterms, their first priority must be impeaching Kavanaugh to ensure that the Court does not a member who so clearly perjured himself.
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