Brett Kavanaugh got a do-over on Sen. Kamala Harris’s question of whether he’d talked to someone from Donald Trump’s personal lawyer’s firm about the Mueller investigation, thanks to Sen. Orrin Hatch. This time around, Kavanaugh came a little closer to an actual denial:
“I don’t recall any conversations of that kind with anyone at that law firm. I didn’t know everyone who might work at that law firm, but I — I don’t recall any conversations of that kind,” Kavanaugh said in response to Hatch’s followup. “I haven’t had any inappropriate conversations about that investigation with anyone. I’ve never given anyone any hints, forecasts, previews, winks, nothing about my view as a judge or how I would rule as a judge on that or anything related to that.”
If he’s never had any inappropriate conversation about the investigation with anyone, then why wasn’t he able to tell Harris that right away? “I’ve never had an inappropriate conversation with someone at Kasowitz, Benson and Torres” is a subset of “I haven’t had any inappropriate conversations about that investigation with anyone,” so he should have been able to confidently answer the original question. If he’s telling the truth this time around.
For those who said, in response to Harris’s questions, that it was unreasonable to expect Kavanaugh to remember who he might have spoken to from a firm with hundreds of lawyers, there’s a reason Kavanaugh shouldn’t have had to search his memory. That reason is that he really should not have been speaking to any random lawyer about the matter.
Yes, it would be worse for him to have a conversation with someone from the firm representing Trump, but he shouldn’t have been talking to someone from Akin Gump or Skadden or Covington & Burling or Jones Day or WilmerHale, either. Because those are all top law firms with hordes of respectable lawyers who a judge might be acquainted with or even friends with from law school or a previous job … but as it turns out, a lawyer for Akin Gump was compelled to testify in Paul Manafort’s case, in addition to one of Trump’s rotating cast of former personal lawyers having worked there in the past. A former Skadden lawyer pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. Covington & Burling represents Michael Flynn. Jones Day represents the Trump campaign. WilmerHale at one point represented Paul Manafort and additionally Mueller and several members of his team previously worked there. This is not me cherry-picking firms—as it turns out, almost any significant law firm that does white collar defense or government investigations in Washington, D.C., is going to turn out to have a connection to the Mueller investigation or to something else a judge like Kavanaugh might have to handle.
And that is why a judge like Kavanaugh simply shouldn’t be talking to lawyers, and why Kavanaugh should remember that he didn’t talk to someone from Kasowitz, Benson and Torres about the Mueller investigation … because he should know that he didn’t talk to anyone about the Mueller investigation.