Senator Cory Booker put on a show over emails involving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Thursday morning, documents Booker claimed were confidential, but in fact had been cleared for public release.
The emails were regarding Kavanaugh’s views on racial issues.
According to Politico:
“Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) vowed to risk expulsion from the chamber if necessary in order to get Kavanaugh documents into the public eye – likening the gesture to “civil disobedience” and an “’I am Spartacus’ moment” – Republicans responded that the records at issue had already been cleared for use early Thursday morning.
“Somebody’s not doing very good homework if they’re asking for committee-confidential stuff to be disclosed that’s already available to the public,” Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said.
Still, it remains unclear how many senators were aware that the confidentiality restrictions on the documents had been released when Booker began speaking out early Thursday.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) openly jabbed Booker in that moment as more concerned with his own 2020 ambitions than the chamber’s protocol, saying that “running for president is no excuse for violating the rules,” signaling that he was unaware of the confidentiality being lifted.”
