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Democrats Demanded Millions Of Kavanaugh Records, But Stay Mum On Biden’s Senate Records
The Federalist ^ | May 1, 2020 | Molly Hemmingway

Posted on 05/01/2020 2:46:28 PM PDT by Kaslin

After hysterical theatrics demanding records from Brett Kavanaugh's career, Democrats haven't said a word as Biden conceals Senate records.


The hypocrisy of Democrats, and their media allies, is on prominent display in their handling of sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden versus their treatment of Brett Kavanaugh. Another example of the hypocrisy relates to the demand, or lack thereof, for documents related to the official government work of the two men.

Until they switched at the last minute to Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation, Democrats’ main message and procedural complaint against Kavanaugh was that they needed to review millions of public records from his time of service in the executive branch. It was the basis for their theatrics in the first round of nomination hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee. At issue was whether these documents were covered by executive privilege, and what kind of precedent it would create to be exchanging these documents between the branches of government. It wasn’t a new argument, but one that rears its head in confirmation battles.

For example, Cory Booker stunned the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 6, 2018, by announcing even before questioning began that he would violate Senate rules by releasing emails that had been marked “committee confidential.” His “Spartacus” moment, as he called it, followed months of battles over how many of documents related to Kavanaugh’s work for the president had to be turned over to the committee.

Committees usually seek paperwork when they’re trying to learn more about nominees whose judicial views are unclear. That wasn’t the case with Kavanaugh, who had spent 12 years as a prominent federal judge, with 307 opinions of his to peruse. If senators were curious about Kavanaugh’s judicial opinions, they could simply read them. By contrast, when Elena Kagan was nominated to the Court by Barack Obama, she had no opinions to her name and limited writings because she had never served as a judge. Her paperwork during her time in the executive branch was of relatively more importance.

Paperwork from early in Kavanaugh’s career as a government lawyer and presidential aide said less about how he’d be as a judge than the 12 years he spent as a federal judge. Beyond that, Kavanaugh had more papers in the government record than other nominees. He’d served on Ken Starr’s Whitewater investigation, in the White House counsel’s office, and as staff secretary in the George W. Bush White House. Technically staff secretaries have millions of papers come across their desk, even if they have nothing to do with the authorship of those papers. Nonetheless, Charles Grassley set about obtaining those papers because Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they needed to review them.

All papers had to go through multiple presidential reviews on account of how they affected multiple presidencies. The Whitewater papers, having previously been combed over, were easiest to produce and showed Kavanaugh in a favorable light. He had argued against releasing personally embarrassing details about President William Jefferson Clinton’s sexual misconduct, for example.

Grassley hired an “e-discovery” firm, marking the first time such techniques would be used in a Supreme Court confirmation process. He put together a team of dozens of staffers to go through the documents, working out of a windowless, rat-infested, cinder-block suite in the basement of the Senate’s Dirksen Office Building. Democrats still claimed it wasn’t enough.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held a press conference on July 31, joined by Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein and assorted leaders of left-wing activist groups. He posed with a small pile of empty boxes labeled “missing records” and said he wanted to see them filled with Kavanaugh’s papers from his time as White House staff secretary.

“I want to make clear, for just a sec, how aggressive the obstruction is,” Schumer said.

A few days later, Republicans posed with 167 boxes representing the hundreds of thousands of pages that were being made available to the committee in easy-to-search digital form.

“If you were to stack up all these pages, it would be taller than the Big Ben, taller than the Statue of Liberty, taller than the Capitol dome, and taller than the Taj Mahal,” noted Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. “I think it’s more than enough for the Democrats to make a rational decision about supporting Judge Kavanaugh.”

When the hearings finally began on September 4, Chairman Grassley barely began speaking before Sen. Kamala Harris of California interrupted him to complain there hadn’t been enough time to review a tranche of 42,000 Kavanaugh documents that had recently been released. Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawai interrupted next to ask that the hearing be postponed so that she could review the documents. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the hearing a charade and mockery. And Booker began complaining about the documents as Grassley calmly told him he was out of order. “What is the rush? What are we trying to hide?” Booker asked.

NBC News had previously reported that Schumer had orchestrated the Democratic protests over paperwork and Sen. Christopher Coons of Delaware told media outlets “It was important that we lay down a marker that this hearing is not a normal hearing.”

Booker performed his “Spartacus moment” a couple of days later, tweeting out links to documents that had been marked “committee confidential,” meaning they could be reviewed by the committee but not released publicly, per an agreement with the executive branch. There was nothing to connect Booker’s situation with the famous scene from the 1960 Kirk Douglas movie in which a group of slaves all claim to be the outlaw Spartacus to help the real Spartacus avoid being crucified. The emails themselves were a dud but Booker tried to make a big deal out of them. “I knowingly violated the rules put forward,” he bragged. He technically hadn’t even violated any rules, having been authorized by an official at the Bush library to release them hours prior.

The bottom line is that Democrats were certainly eager to get their hands on every last scrap of paper that had been within a six-foot radius of Kavanaugh, even if only as a delay and spectacle tactic against Kavanaugh. Democrats and their media allies also pored over Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook and personal notes he wrote friends as a teenager.

How is that standard being applied to Biden now that his official records are at the heart of a major controversy? To date, not one of the Senate Democrats who demanded that the Kavanaugh team spend months supplying them with paperwork have so much as mentioned the fact that Biden is hiding relevant documents at the University of Delaware. These are not documents where significant constitutional or legal precedent issues are at stake, unlike the battle over the documents in the Kavanaugh confirmation. The stakes are purely political. Nor is there an issue about who owns the documents and has the right to release them. Biden controls access to these papers, which he has granted to campaign operatives.

Biden — who opposed the Kavanaugh confirmation, said of Blasey Ford that he presumed “the essence of what she’s talking about is real,” and demanded an FBI investigation into the allegation — refuses to supply any papers from his 36 years as a United States Senator or 8 years as Vice President of the United States. That would cover any papers dealing with his handling of Tara Reade, his employee who accuses him of a 1993 sexual assault, and his handling of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings that were turned into a circus through an unsubstantiated claim of sexual harassment.

“Millions of documents provided by thee but none by me,” is the Democrats’ apparent standard.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2020; chuckgrassley; corybooker; demonrats; documents; joebiden; judiciarycommittee; kavanaugh; molliehemmigway; scn; scotus; senate
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1 posted on 05/01/2020 2:46:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

↑ Click on the thumbnail above to see Biden sing a completely different tune
than the one he's singing today.

Biden sang a different tune when someone else was accused - he was all supportive of the woman with far flimsier evidence.

Biden thought the FBI should investigate when it was Kavanaugh.

2 posted on 05/01/2020 2:47:59 PM PDT by Bon mots
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To: Kaslin

also we must do this:

every time someone says Trump should release his tax returns or his business documents the reply is “not until Biden releases his U of Delaware papers!”


3 posted on 05/01/2020 2:54:02 PM PDT by ChronicMA
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To: Bon mots

I’m pretty sure his campaign has gone through his records removing anything damaging by now.


4 posted on 05/01/2020 2:54:10 PM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: ChronicMA

The evidence is in the vacant National Archives, don’t you know?


5 posted on 05/01/2020 2:56:20 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (This is not /s. It is just as viable as any MSM 'information', maybe more so!)
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To: Kaslin

If not for double standards Democrats would have no standards at all.


6 posted on 05/01/2020 3:02:23 PM PDT by KevinB ("Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin)
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To: All

Biden molested her, then kicked former staffer Tara Reade to the curb, but other Biden staffers went on to become millionaires.

BACKSTORY Scott Green, a ‘national security lobbyist formerly served a staffer for Sen Joe Biden.

Green made a deal with a Biden brother paying $150,000 for land tax assessed at only $38,000.
“In effect, James Biden got his money back while keeping most of the land—recouping his investment in just 12 months.

Ex-staffer Green was the front man —— seemingly losing money to enrich James Biden.

But VP Joe Biden repaid his ex-staffer Green bigtime for doing the Biden family a financial favor.
Green’s ties to Biden merited him a financial windfall (on the backs of taxpayers).
<><> members of Green’s (cough) lobbying firm, the Lafayette Group, were frequent visitors at the Obama-Biden White House.
<><> On April 11, 2010, the ex-staffer’s Lafayette Group was awarded two taxpayer-funded FEMA contracts worth a total of $5.8 million.

Where’d those millions go? Anybody know?
<><>How many other Biden staffers got federal monies?

ACTION NOW

Judicial Watch
425 3rd Street, SW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20024
TELE 1-888-593-8442 between 8:30am and 5:30pm EST.

Call President Trump: Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414
WH EMAIL CONTACT PAGE https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

US CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD: (202) 224-3121

U.S. Department of Justice
Comment Line: 202-353-1555
Switchboard: 202-514-2000

You can fax free from here: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php

You can get phone numbers here: https://contactsenators.com/party.php?party=republican

U.S. Department of Justice
Comment Line: 202-353-1555
Switchboard: 202-514-2000


7 posted on 05/01/2020 3:05:03 PM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: All
Here's another “shady Biden staff” story at the VP level.....all of Biden's Senate/VP staff need to be investigated.

THIS WE KNOW
<><> then-VP Joe Biden’s taxpayer-funded trip to China took place in 2013.
<><> his son Hunter also flew Air Force Two .... using tax dollars to conduct private business...a lucrative Chinese private equity fund.
<><> Hunter's daughter traveled with the official group.

Astoundingly in the vast bureaucracy that is the Chinese Communist govt, in just 10 days after Hunter's trip,
the Communist Chinese government issued Hunter's equity fund a business license.

It would be impossible to know which Communist Party official had the power to do the deal with Hunter.

The deal HAD to be arranged in DC by Biden's staff----well-in-advance of the official trip------ so when the Bidens arrived the deal was good to go, and a license to do business at the ready.

Joe Biden pled nocent, saying he and Hunter "did not discuss" the lucrative business deal during the 12 hour flight. Of course not ---- b/c the Hunter deal was all done in advance ....... by Joe's tax-paid VP staff.

Hunter Biden soaked the taxpayers, using govt-sponsored travel to conduct private business, flying on the VP’ s plane and having the VP's staff arrange the details.

KEEP IN MIND An official US trip is planned and choreographed
with every detail in place----even how long Biden waved before going down the steps to meet the Chinese delegation.

Hunter admits he arranged for his Chinese business partner to meet his Dad-----and in the shady world of global politics, having a picture taken with the US VP is worth gazillions. This tidbit was also verified by NY magazine.

============================================

ABC News reported: “Ukraine wasn't the only country where Hunter Biden's business and his father's diplomacy as Vice President intersected.
It also happened in China.” When VP Joe Biden flew to China on Air Force Two, his son Hunter went with him.....as well as Hunter's daughter.

==============================

This pic is the epitome of Joe Biden and his families' corruption. Shows exactly what they think of taxpaying Americans.
We exist only to serve them and the greedy family's endless get-rich-quick schemes.

The moronic grandaughter waves at the Chinese delegation as if she was some kind of diplomat.

8 posted on 05/01/2020 3:10:49 PM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: Kaslin

Democrats Demanded Millions Of Kavanaugh Records, But Stay Mum On Biden’s Senate Records


The opposition party demanded millions of records? GOP Senate, you are on the clock.

GOP silence and inaction in the face of one Biden scandal after another speaks volumes.


9 posted on 05/01/2020 3:14:48 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: Kaslin

I sincerely hope and pray that this comes as a surprise to nobody.


10 posted on 05/01/2020 3:23:33 PM PDT by Howie66 ("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
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To: KevinB

Gospel truth, here.


11 posted on 05/01/2020 3:24:25 PM PDT by Howie66 ("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
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To: Kaslin
Let'em demand...lol.
Nothing...nuttin' ain't gonna happen.

First, Slick Willy, now Sleepy Joe...don't the Democrats have ANYONE worth a plugged nickel?

12 posted on 05/01/2020 3:30:48 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: Kaslin

Lametards, what dumbarses. Hey lametards, hear something? I do.....I hear that train a coming and its called KARMA, mofos!
You will reap mightily of what you have sown, bet.


13 posted on 05/01/2020 3:35:05 PM PDT by cranked
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To: Kaslin

Their suppose to say something about this on CBS shortly.


14 posted on 05/01/2020 3:38:37 PM PDT by Varsity Flight (QE 2020. All Quiet on the Western Front)
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To: Bon mots

Was this posted on FR?
Biden operatives accessed secret Senate records at University of Delaware before mid-March, report says


15 posted on 05/01/2020 3:43:03 PM PDT by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll eventually get what you deserve)
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To: ChronicMA

That’s too low a price ... how about add to it ... that obozo gives his written permission for Hawaii to release his original birth records AND Columbia University release all records (transcripts, application, etc) obozo used to get into their school. No one seems to remember him being there I heard, or am I mixing that up with another one of his schools.


16 posted on 05/01/2020 5:17:55 PM PDT by Susquehanna Patriot
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To: lodi90

Yeh ... the GOPe believes in colleagiality, comity, and the “sacredness” of the US Senate institution when a demonkrap is the target.


17 posted on 05/01/2020 5:19:40 PM PDT by Susquehanna Patriot
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To: philetus

It makes one asked, what records would a dummy give to a public institution that he would have to send his operatives out to retrieve during the beginning phase of a sandal?


18 posted on 05/01/2020 5:21:20 PM PDT by Susquehanna Patriot
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To: Kaslin

If Demoncrats didn’t have DOUBLE STANDARDS. they wouldn’t have ANY!


19 posted on 05/01/2020 5:24:47 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Kaslin

Don't need the records when there is PLENTY of video!

20 posted on 05/01/2020 5:45:45 PM PDT by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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