[S]en. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., took to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to lament the lack of action among his Republican colleagues in what he called the greatest constitutional crisis facing the US since he was first elected to the Senate in 1974.
Leahy said the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he once chaired and remains a member of, was ideally positioned to investigate claims from Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, that Trump directed him in 2016 to make payments to two women, in an attempt to cover up affairs and in violation of campaign finance laws.
Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and a number of other charges.
“If these were normal times, the Senate Judiciary Committee would immediately pursue an investigation,” Leahy said. “Indeed, the Judiciary Committee is uniquely situated to investigate the allegation raised by Mr. Cohen.”
The senator pointed out that the Senate panel has jurisdiction over campaign finance laws, and already had a willing witness in Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, who made the rounds of cable news Tuesday night promising further information from his client implicating the president.
“It’s difficult to reconcile the Judiciary Committee’s incaction here in one of the most critical constitutional crises we have seen, certainly since I have been in the Senate and I have been here 44 years,” Leahy said.
“It’s difficult to reconcile the Judiciary Committee’s inaction with its race to confirm President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court,” he added.
Kavanaugh records sought
Earlier in the day, Leahy got behind the Senate podium to talk about another issue consuming Washington of late: the upcoming confirmation hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Leahy met with Kavanaugh Tuesday on Capitol Hill, and said he personally continued his crusade to get more of the records from his time as an attorney and staff secretary in the George W. Bush White House.
The National Archives has said it will not be able to produce any documents until October, after confirmation hearings that are set to begin Sept. 4. Attorneys representing Kavanaugh have released some 6 percent of his White House records, but most of those have been marked “committee confidential,” meaning they can only be seen by a handful of senators.
“To date, that means that only 2 percent of Judge Kavanaugh’s White House records are available to the American people — 2 percent, as compared to 99 percent for Justice Kagan,” Leahy said of Elena Kagan, a Barack Obama selection to the Supreme Court who worked in the Bill Clinton White House.
“And they select what that 2 percent is. Golly,” Leahy added. “What’s in the other 98 percent that they don’t want us to see?”
