The Republicans’ latest abuse of power is jaw dropping in it’s arrogance. Our Federal Government will now only respond to Republicans. Now Transparency and Democracy are seen as liabilities for the GOP. Transparency and Democracy are now seen by Republicans as inconveniences to be suppressed and extinguished.
BY JORDAIN CARNEY
The Democratic push to get documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's work in the George W. Bush administration ran into a new roadblock on Friday.
The National Archives, in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said it will only respond to a request for documents under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) if they come from a committee chairman, who are all Republicans.
The National Archives and Records “remains unable to respond to PRA special access requests from ranking minority members,” wrote Archivist David Ferriero,...
...after consultations between the National Archives general counsel and the Justice Department they determined that a documents request “must be from the chair (or the committee itself), unless specifically delegated by the committee to the ranking minority member.”
This is a breathtaking abuse of the Federal Government by the cult of power and wealth that the Republican Party has become.
UPDATE
Republican Chairman Grassley has agreed to Democrats request for other, older records from the the National Archives on Brett Kavanaugh’s time working for Ken Starr during the Clinton era.
BY JORDAIN CARNEY
The top senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee are requesting documents tied to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's work in the 1990s probe into then-President Bill Clinton.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Caif.) sent a letter to the National Archives on Friday requesting Kavanaugh's work on the Kenneth Starr investigation.
"We ask that you provide documents to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in connection with President Trump’s nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States," they wrote in the letter to archivist David Ferriero.
The senators are requesting documents from Kavanaugh's staff file while working at the Office of Independent Counsel, as well as documents he authored, edited or approved. They're also requesting any memos, letters or email sent or received by Kavanaugh.
This raises questions why the older documents might be considered germane, when more recent documents from 2000 to 2006 were capaciously ruled out by Chairman Grassley.