Blumenthal Seeks Documents From Kavanaugh’s White House Stint

Aug. 10--U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has joined his Democratic colleagues in filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's time in the George W. Bush White House.

He said questions exist about Kavanaugh's involvement in some of the administration's "critical" policies.

"These documents are necessary for the American people and undecided members of Congress," Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has already gone on record opposing Kavanaugh's confirmation, said after a town hall Thursday at the Hartford Public Library on Main Street. "They're not just for me, although I would like to see them."

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Blumenthal said he can't support Kavanaugh because of his previous rulings and statements on issues including abortion, gun control and the limits of presidential power.

Kavanaugh, who worked as a staff secretary for Bush before being nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is generally considered a more conservative judge than Anthony Kennedy, who he was selected to replace.

Republicans currently plan to schedule a confirmation hearing before the November election. They hold a majority in the Senate, so if all members vote along party lines, Senate Democrats would need a few Republicans to join them to reject Kavanaugh.

Blumenthal said he said he hopes Americans will voice opposition to Kavanaugh to their senators and potentially convince a few Republicans to oppose Kavanaugh or at least push the confirmation hearing until after the midterm elections.

"My hope is that we will have the American people on our side in terms of beliefs and views," Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal said he opposed delaying the confirmation of Obama nominee Merrick Garland by Senate Republicans, who cited the upcoming presidential election as reason to wait.

Now, though, he said he thinks it's fair to delay Kavanaugh's hearing because the midterm is so much closer and because if this "rule" was applied to a Democratic nominee, it should also be applied to a Republican one.

"It's the McConnell rule," Blumenthal said. "Mitch McConnell established a new rule of no Senate confirmations during election years."

During the town hall -- which happened at noon during the workweek and seemed to be attended largely by affiliates of nonprofits and advocacy groups -- multiple people asked Blumenthal what they could do to help stop Kavanaugh's nomination.

He said normally he would tell them to write their senator, but because that won't help in this case, people can support groups working to oppose the nomination such as NARAL Pro-Choice America and Connecticut Against Gun Violence.

Students from the CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering attended the town hall.

Though she won't be old enough to vote in November, Neha Kataria, 17, said she has still kept up with national politics and the Kavanaugh nomination.

As a young women, she said reproductive rights and access to birth control are important issues to her.

"There's so much emotion that goes behind it," Kataria said. "The pains a woman goes to to get birth control or an abortion are enough without the government being in their business."

Johnathan Bell, 16, said the main way he thinks he can make a difference right now is to be active in his school community and get a good college education, but it doesn't hurt to stay aware of national politics.

"What decisions arise now will be what our generation will have to fix or improve on," Bell said. "This actually is kind of important, even if we can't do too much now."

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