Hirono Denounces Grassley Decision to Send Partisan Request for Kavanaugh Records

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Senator Mazie K. Hirono, the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, issued the following statement on Chairman Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) partisan, Republican-only document request on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination that will not include records from Judge Kavanaugh’s service as President George W. Bush’s staff secretary:

“Chairman Grassley’s decision today is a shameful capitulation to Donald Trump’s style of doing business. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are trying to bulldoze their way through what should be a careful process to fulfill our Constitutional role to provide advice and consent by examining a nominee’s entire, relevant record. 

“In normal times, there would not be any question that the Committee is entitled to see Brett Kavanaugh’s record from his entire service in the Executive Branch, including as White House Staff Secretary. But these are not normal times. Refusing this request only clarifies that Republicans are concerned about what we might find.

“Kavanaugh himself has called the job with President George W. Bush ‘among the most interesting and instructive’ legal experiences that have ‘been most useful’ to him as a judge. 

“The U.S. Senate and the American people deserve to see what Brett Kavanaugh wrote and said about important policy matters, including torture, health care, reproductive rights, environmental regulation, workers’ rights, and more while he served as George W. Bush’s right hand man.”

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