The Senate’s top Democrat on Wednesday called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to postpone its consideration of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing the bombshell guilty plea from Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal attorney.
“The president, identified as an unindicted co-conspirator of a federal crime, an accusation made not by a political enemy but by the closest of his own confidants, is on the verge of making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, a court that may some day soon determine the extent of the president’s legal jeopardy,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. “In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanaugh nomination.”
Kavanaugh is expected to appear before the Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing Sept. 4, when members’ will question Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court nominee over four days.
[Related: Dems use Manafort, Cohen as weapon against Brett Kavanaugh]
But Schumer said Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, should postpone the hearing after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts Tuesday afternoon, including violation of campaign finance laws “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
The charging document detailed an agreement Cohen entered into with the chairman and CEO of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, to “help deal with negative stories about Individual-1’s relationship with women, by among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.”
“Individual-1,” described as a person who “began his presidential campaign” on June 16, 2015, is assumed to be Trump.
Schumer said the implication of the president by Cohen, coupled with Kavanaugh’s views on whether the president has to comply with a subpoena, should preclude the Judiciary Committee from moving forward with his nomination.
“The sequence of those two events — Kavanaugh’s refusal to say that a president must comply with a duly issued subpoena and Michael Cohen’s implication of the president in a federal crime — makes the danger of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court abundantly clear,” he said. “It’s a game changer.”
Schumer said it is “unseemly” for Trump to be selecting a Supreme Court justice who may preside over a case involving the president who nominated him.
Raj Shah, White House principal deputy press secretary, chided the request by Schumer to delay Kavanaugh’s hearing.
“Democrats pledged to block Judge Kavanaugh with everything they had. Frankly, this latest attempt looks increasingly desperate,” he said in a statement. “The Committee has a hearing scheduled for September 4th, and Judge Kavanaugh will be there.”
Also on Wednesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said the panel should not consider Kavanaugh’s nomination early next month in light of Cohen’s guilty plea and the conviction Tuesday of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman.
“After bombshell convictions of key Trump cohorts — & identification of President Trump as an unnamed, unidicted co-conspirator — Judiciary Committee must postpone Kavanaugh nomination hearing,” he said in a series of tweets. “The President of the United States has been implicated in a criminal plot to violate campaign finance laws & influence the outcome of an election. Under no circumstances should we be considering his nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in just one week.”
“Kavanaugh hearing must be immediately postponed so Judiciary Committee can continue vital investigation of Trump campaign criminality & obstruction of justice,” he continued.
Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of tax and bank fraud. He was charged with 18 counts total, but a federal judge declared a mistrial on the remaining 10 counts.
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