Kavanaugh Won’t Answer ‘Hypothetical’ On Whether President Can Be Subpoenaed

on September 5, 2018 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 05: Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh answers questions from Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) during the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill September ... WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 05: Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh answers questions from Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) during the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill September 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy on the court left by retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) MORE LESS

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday refused to say whether a president could be subpoenaed — a critical issue in the ongoing special counsel probe of Russian election interference — calling the question “hypothetical.” But he said he had an “open mind” on the question of whether presidents can be sued.

Kavanaugh also said that U.S. v. Nixon, in which the Supreme Court ordered former President Richard Nixon to turn the Watergate tapes over to a federal court, was “one of the four greatest moments in Supreme Court history.”

In 1999, according to the Associated Press, Kavanaugh said that “maybe Nixon was wrongly decided” because the case “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.”

On Wednesday, Kavanaugh said “I know there was a news story about that, and that’s just not a correct impression of my views.”

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  1. that’s just not a correct impression of my views.”

    Perhaps if we had access to all of your documents, we’d have a more accurate impression of your views.

  2. I’d like to follow this but it’s really cumbersome this way. Senator asks a question, Kavanuts responds, TPM puts up blurb. Repeat. It’s going to be a long twelve hours.

  3. Avatar for jtx jtx says:

    I think he meant Hypoethical.

  4. Here’s what 90% of your fellow Americans believe
    No one is above the law
    Especially Presidents
    They , according to he constitution do not become Deitys upon election although some have lead Twittler to believe it is so

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