Through a spokeswoman, the Department of Justice took responsibility for withholding over 100,000 pages of documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s review of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s record, according to a Monday Buzzfeed News report.
The admission only adds to Democrats’ frustration with the confirmation process. It’s also unusual that lawyers from the office of former President George W. Bush have been reviewing and releasing records outside of the normal process involving the National Archives.
“[T]he White House and the Department of Justice have identified certain documents of the type traditionally protected by constitutional privilege,” said lead Bush lawyer William Burck. “The White House, after consultation with the Department of Justice, has directed that we not provide these documents for this reason.”
Per Buzzfeed News, though the Bush legal team could force the White House to validate the privilege it’s using to keep the records private, Burck has made it clear that they will follow the Trump administration’s lead.
“[W]e have deferred to the White House, in consultation with the Department of Justice, on any documents not provided on constitutional privilege grounds,” he added.
Executive privilege has a different meaning to Trump… who like Humpty Dumpty can define words however he likes.
So, that is the reason trump is berating Sessions. trump wants Sessions and the DOJ to take responsibility for withholding the documents and not the White House.
It is becoming clearer what a trashy tinpot dictator we have.
Does this also explain why Mueller hasn’t already subpoenaed Trump and dragged him in front of the Grnad Jury to answer questions under OATH? The right wingers from the Bush administration are running the show…even though they are not elected and have no place in the government today.
Sounds like the same scam process being used to dismantle the VA from Mar-a-Lago by 3 of Trump’s cronies who have lined up a huge portfolio of private equity money moving in to replace the VA with a private for-profit rigged model.
The end of the US Democracy is fast approaching…the Oligarchy class isn’t happy just having 90% of the nation’s wealth…they want 100% of the wealth and 100% of the power. Yah right…it’s all the fault of illegal immigrants…what a complete con job!
And the Republican crime machine keeps rolling along…
Well it’s already crystal clear he’s going to rule like just another partisan team player in the Scalia tradition, meticulously crafting whatever rationale it takes to advance the Team Republican football. The documents down the memory hole are just previous political snapshots, whose painstakingly calibrated rationales are the opposite of what the Grand Old Politburo is peddling today.