David Kurtz
Cameron Joseph on the scene in the overflow room (for Prime subscribers) for the Kavanaugh hearing.
The list of things wrong with the Senate Judiciary Committee’s approach to the Kavanaugh allegations is long, but this pingponging back and forth between the GOP’s outside counsel and Democratic senators is bonkers. For those not watching, it’s making for a fragmented, disjointed, jarring hearing. It’s just another layer to the indefensible process that the majority cobbled together to try to minimize the risks to the Kavanaugh nomination.
Read Brett Kavanaugh’s prepared testimony for round 2 of his confirmation hearing.
Rod Rosenstein has reportedly tendered his resignation in advance of what he is expecting to be his termination as deputy attorney general.
President Trump orders the politically motivated declassification of investigative materials and the release of texts from targeted top investigators in the Russia probe.
The GOP’s short-lived fallback position that Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser should be heard, but apparently only in private, has quickly been abandoned in favor of a public hearing. CNN is reporting that both Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh will testify next Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Like Clarence Thomas more than a quarter century ago, Kavanaugh will be returning to testify about new sexual misconduct allegations after his initial testimony was complete.
The Senate returned late this afternoon from its recess, and it didn’t take long for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to resign themselves to more committee hearings as the way forward, meaning Thursday’s scheduled committee vote to advance the Kavanaugh nomination to the full Senate will have to be delayed.
Late Update: It’s all but confirmed. The special counsel’s office just released a “Superseding Criminal Information” in the DC case. That is in all likelihood the abbreviated set of charges Manafort will agree to plead guilty to. More soon …
Kavanaugh concludes his public testimony. Catch up with Tierney Sneed’s reporting from the hearing.