Rosenstein Asks US Attorneys For Help Preparing Kavanaugh Confirmation Docs

on June 28, 2018 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 28: U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (L) leaves after a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee June 28, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. While scheduled to discuss the J... WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 28: U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (L) leaves after a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee June 28, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. While scheduled to discuss the Justice Department Inspector general report released this month on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, Republicans were expected to use the opportunity to press for release of documents subpoenaed by the committee that detail FBI actions in 2016. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this week asked all 93 U.S. attorneys to provide up to three prosecutors each from their offices to help review documents needed for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The New York Times reported Wednesday on the emailed request, which carried the subject line “Personal Message to U.S. attorneys from the Deputy AG,” to the U.S. attorneys.

The Times reported that Rosenstein wrote he “expected to need the equivalent of 100 full-time lawyers to work on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing,” in the paper’s words.

The judge’s long paper trail — on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, as an appointee in the George W. Bush White House and as an associate counsel on the Ken Starr probe — promise to make his confirmation process document-filled and cumbersome.

“The scope of the production of executive branch documents we’ve been asked for is many, many times as large” as that of other recent nominees to the Court, Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores told the Times.

The paper noted that while Justice Department lawyers have helped with previous Supreme Court nominations, those lawyers usually come from the Department’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, not the law enforcement-focused U.S. attorneys’ offices.

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