A major issue that has come up over and over regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh going into his Supreme Court confirmation hearing is testimony he gave at his 2006 confirmation when he was first nominated as a federal judge. Back then, he denied playing any role in decisions regarding the George W. Bush administration’s torture policies, but Democrats claim that there is evidence that this was not true.
Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi discussed this issue on the Law&Crime Network Wednesday morning. Rossi was convinced that Kavanaugh’s past assertion was false, and was highly skeptical of the idea that the White House wouldn’t want to ask Kavanaugh about important issues, given his legal acumen.
“He made the bold categorical statement that he had no involvement in the torture decisions,” Rossi said. “That is a huge deal. And I can’t believe this. He is a double Yalie. When he was in the White House working for President Bush and also the right hand man of Karl Rove, he was the smartest dude in the White House. It is beyond belief that the White House Counsel’s office would not consult with the smartest guy in the building.”
Democrats have been raising objections to over 100,000 pages of documents related to Kavanaugh’s past work that were not released before the hearing. Rossi believes that these documents could prove that Kavanaugh’s past sworn statements were not entirely true.
“I think he was involved in the torture decision,” Rossi said, “and the reason they’re holding back those 100,000 documents is there are red flags and loud gongs that suggest he was involved.”
“You’re saying that this man, right here, lied under oath,” host Jesse Weber pointed out.
“At best, misleading testimony,” Rossi said. “And you know who agrees with me? The Senators who heard his answer.”
Later in the morning, Senator Orrin Hatch asked Kavanaugh about this, asking if he misled the Senate regarding this at his 2006 hearing. Kavanaugh denied telling anything but the truth.
“I told the truth and the whole truth in my prior testimony,” he said. “I was not read into that program. The subsequent reports of Senator Feinstein and Office of Professional Responsibility show that, and that is what I did then. That’s the answer now. I was not read into that program.”
Later on, Senator Patrick Leahy asked Kavanaugh about the program, and Kavanaugh said he first learned about it when he read about it in the New York Times.
[Image via Law&Crime Network screengrab]
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