Magnifico reported in his Overnight News Digest that:
... Sen. Dick Durbin* (D-IL) says he feels "perilously close to being lied to" by D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Durbin said Kavanaugh "did not disclose his participation in at least one White House discussion regarding enemy combatant issues when asked about it during his 2006 Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing".
Apparently Patrick Leahy doesn't have any such doubts. Reuters is reporting that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has asked Alberto Gonzales to determine whether Kavanaugh lied to Congress, and to be prosecured if it is determined that he did. Leahy said in his letter to Gonzales, "I have no choice but to refer the matter to you for appropriate investigation and prosecutorial action."
Kavanaugh sits on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was nominated by George W. Bush and confirmed in May 2006. A spokesman for Kavanaugh said that "his testimony was truthful."
According to the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit "gets more detainee cases than any other US court. In fact, the first case Kavanaugh ever heard as a judge was about Guantanamo detainees." As a consequence, some of the questions in his confirmation hearings were about his possible role in developing rules for detainees. Dick Durbin asked Kavanaugh directly about his participation in "crafting the administration's detention and interrogation policies."
Kavanaugh's response to the question was, "Senator, I did not – I am not involved and was not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants. And so I do not have any involvement with that."
According to the Reuters report:
... Leahy said when he asked Kavanaugh about documents related to detainee policies, Kavanaugh replied: "This was not part of my docket."
Ari Shapiro, with NPR, says:
... Kavanaugh WAS involved in a White House conversation about detainees. The meeting was about American enemy combatants, such as Jose Padilla and Yasser Hamdi. Kavanaugh used to clerk for the Supreme Court's swing voter, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and he advised the White House lawyers at that meeting that Kennedy would probably reject the President's claim that American combatants could be denied access to a lawyer. That meeting was first reported in the Washington Post. NPR independently confirmed the details with multiple sources...
It must come as a shock to some that a sitting Circuit Court Judge would be accused of lying. Let's see how long Gonzales ignores Leahy's request.
Another link - to NPR Story. Thanks, FerrisValyn.
(*NOTE: per request, changed spelling of "Durban" to "Durbin" in first blockquote.)