Kavanaugh tried to downplay his involvement in the hacking of Democrats. It was a disaster.

[babylonsister]

Kavanaugh tried to downplay his involvement in the hacking of Democrats. It was a disaster.
"Judge, I was born at night but not last night," said Sen. Leahy.
Ryan Koronowski
Sep 6, 2018, 1:58 pm


During his confirmation hearing on Thursday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was asked to explain his reaction to emails he received in 2003 containing documents stolen from Democratic senators and staff.

His explanation, even when confronted with an email from a second staffer with the subject line “spying,” was that it was all perfectly normal.

After detailing an email Kavanaugh received from former Republican senate staffer Manny Miranda which contained text “obviously taken from my internal emails,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked, “did any of this raise a red flag in your mind?”

Kavanaugh’s explanation began with an attempt to justify receiving stolen emails from his political opposition as commonplace.

“It did not, Senator, because it all seemed consistent with the usual kind of discussions that happen,” he said. “And sometimes people do say things of, here’s what my boss is thinking, but don’t share it around.”

Except Miranda wasn’t giving Kavanaugh a heads up on what his boss was thinking, but rather a senator of the opposing party. Kavanaugh further explained it as a colleague “trying to give you a heads up on something” which he said “seems standard.” He tried to conclude by saying such an email wouldn’t have “raised anything at all for me” when Leahy interrupted.

“Not even where it came from?” he asked Kavanaugh, turning to an email from another staffer named Barbara Ledeen. “On June 5, 2003, you received an e-mail from a Republican senate staffer with subject line ‘spying.’ That is not overly subtle. This staffer appears in over 1,000 documents we received together with both you and Mr. Miranda. She says she has ‘a mole for us.’ And so forth. None of this raised a red flag with you?”

Kavanaugh’s response returned to the position that Republican senate staffers emailing a Bush White House senior official about spying on Democrats and offering the services of a “mole” was totally normal. Bizarrely, he seemed to laud the behavior as an example of “bipartisanship.”

It did not, senator. Again, people have friends across the aisle who they talk to. At least this is my experience back then. Maybe it’s changed. And there was a lot of bipartisanship on the committee. There was a lot of bipartisanship among the staffs. There were a lot of friendships and relationships where people would talk to, oh, I’ve got a friend on Senator Ted Kennedy’s staff, or I have a friend on Senator Hatch’s staff or Senator Specter’s staff. That kind of information sharing did not raise red flags.

Leahy was nonplussed.

“Judge, I was born at night but not last night,” he replied. “If I had something that somebody said ‘we’ve stolen this’ or ‘this is — don’t tell anybody we have this,’ I think it would raise some red flags.”

more...

https://thinkprogress.org/kavanaugh-leahy-stolen-emails-spying-manny-miranda-453b822fab39/

[Hav]

1. It speaks volumes that such a troubling, controversial

and corrupted character is even considered.
And attributing it to a different time is bs. What did Gore do when he was presented with stolen material, for example?

[BlueWI]

2. Well, just yesterday

progressive organizations who were willing to fight this nomination were being called out of touch leftists right here on DU.

Hopefully everyone is on board now for calling out these career game players that can't be trusted to uphold the law or follow it themselves. If you have a voice or a vote, it's use it or lose it time!

[Cosmocat]

4. Until post reality USA

This would be a drop mic, end of nomination.

[Scurrilous]

3. K&R