The Senate should halt its consideration of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee after Tuesday’s guilty verdicts against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and guilty pleas from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Democrats insisted late Tuesday.
Democrats have long argued that Republicans are trying to rush Trump’s pick, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, through the Senate confirmation process. But Tuesday’s surprising verdict and guilty pleas — along with Cohen’s claim that Trump instructed him to violate campaign finance laws — gave Democrats a new way to justify a complete halt to Kavanaugh’s consideration.
“A president who’s also an unindicted co-conspirator should not get to make lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court,” Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., argued Tuesday night.
[Also read: Trump’s ‘bad week’: Manafort found guilty, Cohen enters plea deal]
A President who’s also an unindicted co-conspirator should not get to make lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court.
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) August 21, 2018
Kavanaugh has slowly been meeting with Democratic senators in a bid to win confirmation by September, in time for the Supreme Court’s next term that starts Oct. 1. But he made Democrats nervous when a 2009 law article he wrote surfaced last month in which Kavanaugh indicated opposition to the idea of indicting a sitting president.
That was noted by several Democrats Tuesday night, especially after Cohen told a courtroom that Trump told him to violate campaign finance laws. Several lawmakers immediately worried that Kavanaugh might help prevent them from the legal attacks against Trump that might come next.
“Paul Manafort — found guilty. Michael Cohen — pleads guilty, implicates Donald Trump,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., tweeted. “Donald Trump has nominated a Supreme Court justice who believes he can’t be indicted.”
Paul Manafort – found guilty. Michael Cohen – pleads guilty, implicates Donald Trump. Donald Trump has nominated a Supreme Court justice who believes he can’t be indicted.
Not a coincidence. Not a witch hunt.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) August 21, 2018
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed that complaint in his own tweet.
“[O]n the issue of executive power, Judge Kavanaugh would not say that the President must comply with a subpoena or provide records,” he wrote.
Brian Fallon, Hillary Clinton’s former press secretary, said the Senate may be on the verge of approving a nominee who thinks Trump is “above the law.”
“Do not let Trump rig the nation’s highest court by installing a guy who thinks a president is above the law,” he tweeted. “Because you know this is not ending without a showdown at the Supreme Court.”
Anyone who cares about the rule of law has two jobs in the coming weeks:
1. Protect Mueller.
2. Do not let Trump rig the nation’s highest court by installing a guy who thinks a president is above the law. Because you know this is not ending without a showdown at the Supreme Court— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 21, 2018
Despite these new complaints, Kavanaugh seemed to make progress on his nomination process Tuesday, after a meeting with potential swing voter Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. She left a meeting with Kavanaugh satisfied that he believes Roe v. Wade, the decision granting abortion rights to women, was settled law.
But Democrats will have a chance to argue that Kavanaugh would help protect Trump from an indictment if he becomes a member of the Supreme Court during his confirmation hearings in the first week of September.
