Sen. Cory Booker threatens to release confidential document during Kavanaugh hearing
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) threatened Thursday to release a confidential email from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh “about racial profiling” at the start of the third day of confirmation hearings.
The senator said he would “knowingly violate” the rules and accept any punishment for his action, which he would consider to be civil disobedience. Booker said the email, taken from Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush White House, does not pose a threat to national security.
Booker could be expelled for violating Senate rules, although it is unlikely.
His colleagues Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) rallied around him, pledging their support in the event Booker faced “retribution,” as Durbin put it.
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Hirono also offered to release the committee confidential documents to the press, saying she would “defy anyone.”
“You want everything to be made public? All your emails? I don’t think you do,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) responded.
The move would be in line with what progressive groups urged Democratic senators to do Wednesday: Go around Grassley and release the 141,000 pages of documents from Kavanaugh’s record that are not permitted for public release or public discussion. Members of the committee can read and discuss the documents among themselves, but they cannot question Kavanaugh on their contents in the hearings.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
