Trump officials withhold 100K pages of Kavanaugh’s records

The White House has pushed to withhold more than 100,000 pages of records related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time as White House lawyer during the George W. Bush administration.

Bush’s attorney Bill Burck informed the Senate Judiciary Committee of the Trump administration’s decision to withhold the documents in a letter to the panel on Friday.

The Trump administration is withholding the documents on the basis of presidential privilege, according to the letter provided by the White House to The Hill.{mosads}

Bush had directed those reviewing what documents to release to err “on the side of transparency and disclosure, and we believe we have done so,” the attorney wrote.

The Trump administration, which was also able to review the records being released, “has directed that we not provide these documents,” Burck told the panel, referring to the more than 100,000 documents.

In total, 267,000 pages of documents from Kavanaugh’s years in the Bush administration are being turned over for release to the public.

President Trump nominated Kavanaugh in July to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was Trump’s second Supreme Court pick, following his nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch last year.

Kavanaugh faces a wave of Democratic resistance over concerns over his views on issues such as Roe v. Wade and the legality of a special counsel to investigate the president for criminal liability.

His confirmation hearings are set to kick off on Tuesday, with witnesses such as former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) set to testify. 

This article was updated at 12:51 a.m.