While it may seem like a lifetime ago this little-reported article came out in mid-July 2018:
Kavanaugh: Watergate tapes decision may have been wrong
The money quote from Kavanaugh in 1999:
“But maybe Nixon was wrongly decided — heresy though it is to say so. Nixon took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official. That was a huge step with implications to this day that most people do not appreciate sufficiently...Maybe the tension of the time led to an erroneous decision,”
At the time to some, the article probably seemed like a blip on the radar focusing on an odd quirky opinion in direct opposition to both the thinking of the courts and the Constitution itself but consider what was going on in Trumpworld leading into the Kavanaugh nomination:
- A few months prior, in April the Feds raid the home and hotel of his long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
- That same month firing Special Counsel Mueller weighed heavily on his mind, with Trump saying "Many people have said you should fire him", and "We'll see what happens".
- He also brings on board four more attorneys to his legal team over the course of a week in April (Rudy Guiliani, Joanna Hendon, & Jane and Marty Raskin) and replaces Ty Cobb with Emmet Flood (Clinton’s impeachment lawyer) in May.
- He eliminates the top cybersecurity role in the nation by pushing out Tom Bossert and his protegé Rob Joyce that position has been in charge of organizing the political responses to cybersecurity issues like the sanctions imposed for Russian meddling in 2016.
- In May he acknowledged in his financial disclosure form the payment to Michael Cohen to cover the payment to Stormy Daniels.
- And finally, in form true to Trump. He goes on the offensive against the FBI demanding the Justice Department investigate whether his campaign was "infiltrated" by the FBI. The IG agrees to review the counterintelligence investigation of the 2016 campaign.
Based on just the hires of five new attorneys alone, especially the addition of Emmet Flood, it appears impeachment was weighing heavily on Trump’s mind leading into June 2018.
Cue a potential Supreme Court Justice with both a radical view of executive power and the assertion that the decision that forced Nixon to hand over the Watergate tapes may have been erroneously decided and suddenly Trump finds a match made in heaven. It’s important to note here though, Kavanaugh did have another stance in 1995. In his own writings, he muses of Clinton “Why should the president be different than anyone else for the purposes of responding to a grand jury subpoena?”.
During the run-up to his confirmation Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, and Chris Coons tried to sound the alarms reminding anyone that would listen that President Trump always looks out for Number 1 first and such an expansive view of executive power could be dangerous for the Republic which fell on deaf ears with the Republican senators.
Regardless, Trump made a bet today that this guy was going to stop the impeachment inquiry once it made it’s way to the Supreme Court. The entire country may end up paying the price for the Supreme Court seat stolen by Moscow Mitch.