The Justice Department Was Behind The Decision To Keep 100,000 Pages Of Kavanaugh's Record Secret

Both career lawyers and political appointees reviewed records from some of the Supreme Court nominee's time working in the White House, a source said.

Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From Washington, DC

Posted on September 3, 2018, at 11:36 p.m. ET

After two days of questions about how it was decided that more than 100,000 pages of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's White House work would be withheld from the Senate Judiciary Committee's review, the Justice Department took responsibility for the decision on Monday night.

"The Department of Justice, which has advised both Democratic and Republican administrations on the application of the Presidential Records Act and constitutional privileges, was responsible for determining which documents were produced to the Senate Judiciary Committee," Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores said.

The Washington Post and Fox News first reported the acknowledgment earlier Monday evening — the eve of the start of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing. The acknowledgment fits with what a source familiar with the process told BuzzFeed News.

The news that the documents were being kept from the public and the committee was reported on Friday night, when the lawyer overseeing the review sent a letter to congressional leaders about the final status of his review. The development was just the latest step in a series of fights over the millions of documents from Kavanaugh's time working in George W. Bush's White House from 2001 until when he was confirmed to his seat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

The office of former president Bush has been producing some of those documents to the committee in advance of the hearing — a decision that went outside of the usual process for congressional requests under the Presidential Records Act, which is handled by the National Archives.

more
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisgeidner/doj-kavanaugh-records-privilege-tagging