Republicans are gearing up to fight yet another precedent they themselves set on Supreme Court confirmations. When Justice Elena Kagan was confirmed, Republicans demanded every scrap of paper from her time in government. But they really don't want Democrats or the public to see the full paper trail for Donald Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, who worked as a prosecutor for independent counsel Kenneth Starr and in George W. Bush’s White House as staff secretary and for the White House counsel’s office.
Releasing all that paperwork could take quite a while and demanding it is both a way Senate Democrats could slow down the confirmation process and a possible source of interesting revelations about Kavanaugh’s record. Republicans won't be happy about either part of that, and a former Democratic Senate Judiciary staffer predicted that “the Republicans are going to say they’ve released more pages than any nominee in history. … They’re going to take that talking point and run with it.”
Kavanaugh worked on the investigation of a sitting president, only to turn around and now oppose investigation of sitting presidents. So his participation in Starr’s investigation is directly relevant to a major issue he’s likely to face if confirmed—and an issue Republicans must particularly wish to avoid.
A broader index of Kavanaugh's files shows still-unreleased folders containing memos on "perjury (obstruction/false statements)," shredding of records by Hillary Clinton's former law firm, impeachment, grand jury secrecy issues related to President Bill Clinton's interview about Foster's death, and a conspiracy theory at the time known as the INSLAW Affair.
Some Republicans who expressed concern about Trump picking Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court say those documents and others could put him and Trump in an awkward spot by giving fodder to Democrats to ask questions about parallels between Clinton's alleged misdeeds and accusations that Trump lied to the public and obstructed justice.
Gee, you think? Look for Republicans to argue against transparency as they seek to confirm a justice nominated by a president under investigation as part of a deal to get a sitting justice to retire.