SENATOR STILL CLAIMS HE “VIOLATED RULES,” ASKS TO BE “CHARGED”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 6, 2018) — Fox News reported Thursday afternoon that Bill Burck, an attorney representing the George W. Bush administration, issued a statement in which he said the four pages of emails exchanged between U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh and others in 2001 and 2002 released by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) were already declassified, contrary to Booker’s dramatic claim at the opening of Thursday’s confirmation hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Booker, who reportedly plans to run for president in 2020, declared that he would release the documents without committee approval and “risk the consequences” of being expelled from the U.S. Senate. He later did so through his Twitter account.
Other Democratic senators quickly supported Booker’s stance at the outset of the third day of hearings concerning Kavanaugh’s nomination. Democrats on the committee claim that a very small percentage of documents associated with Kavanaugh’s public service have been made available, while Republicans have countered that just under 500,000 pages have been released totaling more than any other Supreme Court nominee in history.
Thursday morning’s initially raucous hearing included Booker’s challenging Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-TX) to “bring it,” meaning charges against him for violating Senate rules on releasing confidential material. According to Fox News, although the documents he released were reportedly cleared beforehand.
Booker continues to claim he broke the rule on “Committee Classified” documents.