Archives Letter to Grassley Exposes “Sham” Process

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 2, 2018  – Today, the National Archives informed Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley that the records Grassley has requested covering Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s tenure in the White House cannot be produced before the end of October.  Because this conflicts with Grassley’s announcement that he hopes to hold confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh in early September, Republicans have countered by signaling that they will move forward anyway with assistance of lawyers for former President George W. Bush. It is also notable that the records Grassley requested represent only a small subset of documents dating from Kavanaugh’s White House career, and exclude all documents from his three years of service as Staff Secretary to President George W. Bush.  AFJ President Nan Aron released the following statement:

“Today’s letter from the Archives to Chairman Grassley exposes the sham process that Republicans are putting in place to push through a highly problematic Supreme Court nominee. The Archives says it is not reasonable to expect Grassley’s requested documents on Brett Kavanaugh to be processed and produced before the end of October, so Republicans now say, don’t worry: we have our own lawyers who can do the job.  And never mind that the records in question are only a small subset of the documents the Archives holds on Kavanaugh; there are hundreds of thousands of other pages of records that Chairman Grassley has refused to ask for — records that cover a critical part of Kavanaugh’s career.  These developments make it even more clear that this entire confirmation process has been infected with partisanship, needless haste and and corner-cutting. The American people deserve to know the record of a fellow citizen who aspires to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. It’s time to slow down, take this process seriously, and ensure that all relevant records are released and reviewed, however long it takes.”