President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, is set to have a confirmation hearing on September 4, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley announced on Friday.
According to a notice sent to Senate Republicans on Friday, the hearing to replace retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will likely take place over a series of three or four days.
The first day of the hearing will consist of opening statements, and Kavanaugh will face questioning starting September 5, The Washington Post reports. Following Kavanaugh’s questioning, outside witnesses, legal experts and the American Bar Association will also take part in the hearing.
“As I said after his nomination, Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most respected jurists in the country and one of the most qualified nominees ever to be considered by the Senate for a seat on our highest court,” Grassley said in a statement Friday. “He’s a mainstream judge. He has a record of judicial independence and applying the law as it is written. He’s met with dozens of senators who have nothing but positive things to say.”
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Grassley said the committee has reviewed more than 184,000 pages of Kavanaugh’s work as a White House lawyer under President George W. Bush, as well as his work with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, ABC News reports. Grassley’s team has also reviewed 8,400 pages of Kavanaugh’s legal opinions and more than 17,000 pages pertaining to his committee questionnaire.
“With the Senate already reviewing more documents than for any other Supreme Court nominee in history, Chairman Grassley has lived up to his promise to lead an open, transparent and fair process,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said Friday following the announcement of the hearing. “Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to addressing the Judiciary Committee in public hearings for the American people to view.”
“He’ll get confirmed. It won’t be a landslide, but he’ll get confirmed,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with WKDZ radio in Kentucky Friday morning, adding that the Senate was “moving right along” to confirm Kavanaugh by Oct. 1, when the Supreme Court will reconvenes.
But there has been contention between the Democrats and Republicans regarding Kavanaugh’s hearing.
On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Grassley’s announcement of a confirmation hearing as a “mad rush” amid the ongoing dispute over Kavanaugh’s records. Democratic senators have been enraged with Grassley and Senate Republicans for slowly releasing the Kavanaugh documents since they arrived at the Senate last week, The Washington Post reports.
“Republicans’ mad rush to hold this hearing after unilaterally deciding to block nearly all of Judge Kavanaugh’s records from public release is further evidence that they are hiding important information from the American people, and continues to raise the question, ‘What are they hiding?’” Schumer said in a statement.
“Republican efforts to make this the least transparent, most secretive Supreme Court nomination in history continue,” Schumer added. “They seem to be more frightened of this nominee’s record and history than any we’ve ever considered.”