Senator Flake,
I am writing to urge you to withhold your Judicial Committee vote regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
In October of 2017, when you announced you would not be running for re-election, you began by noting, “These offices that we hold are not ours to hold indefinitely. We are not here to simply mark time. Sustained incumbency is certainly not the point of seeking office. And there are times when we must risk our careers in favor of principles.”
As you know, a seat on the United States Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment. So, each Justice should be principled, absolutely above reproach, with not even a hint of dishonesty or partisanship.
Brett Kavanaugh doesn’t come close to those standards. And you know it.
You also understand this whole process is illegitimate; a rushed, opportunistic gambit unprecedented in terms of transparency and regular order. The American people are being conned.
In a speech you gave before the Senate on January 17, 2018, you said, “… Near the beginning of the document that made us free, our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident...’ So, from our very beginnings, our freedom has been predicated on truth. The founders were visionary in this regard, understanding well that good faith and shared facts between the governed and the government would be the very basis of this ongoing idea of America.”
Truth. Shared facts between the governed and the government.
In that same address you drew from John F. Kennedy’s speech on the 20th anniversary of the Voice of America, quoting, “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
Are we now a nation that is afraid of its people? Or is it just your party that’s afraid of losing power?
Here is an important truth. Brett Kavanaugh has lied, under oath, to congress about his role in stolen documents; warrantless wiretapping; Bush’s torture program; and the nominations of two Judges.
And how did unindicted perjurer Brett Kavanaugh become a nominee to sit on the highest court in the land?
In September of 2016, prior to his being elected President (but still campaigning on how he would only nominate Justices who would overturn Roe. V. Wade), Donald Trump released a list of potential Supreme Court Justice picks, saying, “This list is definitive, and I will choose only from it in picking future Justices of the United States Supreme Court.”
Neil Gorsuch, the Justice who replaced Antonin Scalia 14 months after Mitch McConnell stole the seat from the Obama administration, was on that list.
Then, after taking office, when Robert Mueller was named Special Counsel to investigate Russian election interference, that list suddenly grew with the announcement of Justice Kennedy’s retirement. Five more names were added, including Brett Kavanaugh, the Judge who became the President’s chosen nominee to replace the retiring Justice Kennedy.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear to Mr. Trump that Kavanaugh’s lengthy paper trail would pose difficulties for his confirmation and suggested someone else.
But this nominee was unique. He had argued that Presidents should not be distracted by investigations or lawsuits until after they leave office. He had even written that Presidents should not be subpoenaed, indicted or even investigated.
How convenient.
McConnell was correct. Kavanaugh has an extensive paper trail which could be detrimental to his nomination. And the American people have a right to review his history. But Republicans have blocked access. They are shielding hundreds of thousands of pages of potentially important records from Kavanaugh’s time in George W. Bush’s White House.
And therein lies a blatant partisan conflict of interest: The lawyer who has been placed in charge of which documents are released, Bill Burck, is representing former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former White House adviser Steve Bannon and White House counsel Don McGahn – along with three other current or former Trump staffers – in the Russia matter, spearheaded by Mueller.
Burck and Kavanaugh were colleagues in the Bush White House. They’re friends. And Burck is now ‘the decision maker’ about what the people and Democratic Senators are being allowed to know about the Judge who appears to have been picked, specifically, because of the Russian investigation.
Over 90% of Kavanaugh’s record is being withheld. This is without precedent. The administration is committed to obscuring the truth to protect Donald Trump instead of the republic.
This past May, in a speech to the students and faculty at the 2018 Harvard Law School Class Day ceremony, you said, “Our presidency has been debased. By a figure who has a seemingly bottomless appetite for destruction and division. And only a passing familiarity with how the Constitution works.”
You continued, “And our Article I branch of government, the Congress (that’s me), is utterly supine in the face of the moral vandalism that flows from the White House daily. I do not think that the Founders could have anticipated that the beauty of their invention might someday founder on the rocks of reality television, and that the Congress would be such willing accomplices to this calamity. Our most ardent enemies, doing their worst (and they are doing their worst), couldn’t hurt us more than we are hurting ourselves.”
If you do nothing to prevent Brett Kavanaugh from becoming a Supreme Court Justice, you will be complicit in this self-inflicted destruction of our democratic republic.
Republicans now hold a slight majority on the Judiciary Committee, 11-10. Regarding the nominee, Chairman Chuck Grassley told CNN, “If it’s a controversial one, we probably would have to have all 11 Republicans. So, if one Republican wouldn't vote, and it's 10 to 10, then we're not going to take it up."
Senator Flake, please do the right thing. This is one of those times when you must risk your future political career in favor of principle.
Brett Kavanaugh is no more fit to sit on the Supreme Court bench than Donald Trump is fit to be President. That’s the truth.
And you, as much as anyone, understand this completely.
Please, Senator. Refuse to support the Supreme Court Justice nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.