Grassley: Kavanaugh Review Will Be Thorough and Fair, but No Taxpayer-Funded Fishing Expedition
WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley today released the following statement regarding the
committee review of documents relevant to the nomination of Judge Brett
Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
“This
will be my 15th Supreme Court confirmation hearing. It will be the most
transparent and thorough process of any of them. We will fulfill our
constitutional duty to independently evaluate Judge Kavanaugh’s qualifications.
We have 12 years and more than 300 of his judicial writings on the D.C.
Circuit, along with hundreds of opinions that he joined. We will also review
his many academic writings and speeches. At Judge Kavanaugh’s hearing, we will
hear from the people who know him best. We will also have the opportunity to
look at relevant and proportional emails and other records from Judge
Kavanaugh’s service in the White House. The committee will use sophisticated
technology to conduct a thorough review. We will follow the gold standard for lawyers
litigating in courthouses across America every day. We will have the manpower,
technology and other resources to follow a confirmation timeline similar to the
standard for previous Supreme Court nominees.
“Many
Democrats announced their opposition to this nominee before the vetting process
ever began. They’ve made clear that their plan will be to obstruct and delay at
every corner, and reviewing Judge Kavanaugh’s record will be no different. Rest
assured, this process will be fair and thorough. At the same time, I will not
allow taxpayers to be on the hook for a government-funded fishing expedition.”
Consistent
with the review of White House records of previous Supreme Court nominees,
non-privileged records subject to the Presidential Records Act may be
considered by the committee. Consistent with the federal rules and litigation
standards, similar to how judges and lawyers handle e-Discovery in federal
courthouse across America, the committee will seek a bipartisan agreement on
the proper scope and use an e-Discovery platform to conduct its review of
‘relevant’ and ‘proportional’ records. Federal law permits lawyers for
President George W. Bush and President Donald J. Trump to review the documents
for privilege and privacy concerns. Records are expected to be provided to the
committee on a rolling basis and on an equal basis to the Chairman and the
Ranking Member.
For
additional context, here are data points for the last three Supreme Court
nominees who previously served in the Executive Branch:
|
Nominee
|
Pages
of Documents Produced
|
Number
of Written Judicial Opinions
|
|
John
Roberts
|
~70,000
|
49
published; 0 unpublished
|
|
Elena
Kagan
|
~173,000
|
0
published; 0 unpublished
|
|
Neil
Gorsuch
|
~182,000
|
239
published; 618 unpublished
|
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