Kavanaugh and the Harris question

The clear disavowal from Kavanaugh may put to rest a daylong mystery that began when Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) appeared to rattle the nominee by asking late Wednesday whether he nominee has spoken about Mueller’s investigation with someone at Trump-connected firm Kasowitz Benson & Torres.

Kavanaugh was unable to answer Harris at first, generating one of the confirmation hearing’s most talked-about moments, but he gave more complete “no’s” to Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Harris on Thursday. Before that moment, Democrats have said they have reason to suspect Mueller’s investigation did come up in Kavanaugh’s dealings with someone from Kasowitz – pointing to Edward McNally, a partner at the firm who worked closely with Trump’s high court pick in George W. Bush’s White House.

McNally appears in nearly two thousand of the Bush-era documents released to the Senate from Kavanaugh’s past, according to one Senate Democratic aide.

However, when Harris first posed her question to the nominee Wednesday night, he appeared uncertain if he knew anyone affiliated with Kasowitz.

“I’m just trying to think, do I know anyone who works at that firm?” Kavanaugh said..

  Politico

This total bullshit on Kavanaugh's part was obvious in the questioning.

Hours later, on Thursday afternoon, Kavanaugh was able to freely name McNally as someone in his orbit.

[...]

McNally served as a speechwriter to former President George H.W. Bush and later worked alongside Kavanaugh in the second Bush’s administration before joining the Kasowitz firm. He offered praise for Kavanaugh for a New York Times story that ran in July. Records released to the Judiciary Committee show that McNally and Kavanaugh were part of multiple internal White House discussions on shaping policy.

[...]

“I don’t know who works at that firm, other than a few people I'm aware of just from the public,” Kavanaugh replied, again declining to name McNally at that point. He reiterated a denial of any untoward conversations regarding Mueller’s probe.

[...]

The longstanding ties between Kavanaugh and McNally, whom Trump personally interviewed for a U.S. attorney position last year, offer no solid proof that Kavanaugh discussed Mueller’s probe with his former colleague. Kavanaugh told senators on Thursday that he has had no “inappropriate conversations about that investigation with anyone.”

He flat out said no when asked by Tillis at the end of yesterday's hearing if he'd spoken about the Mueller investigation with anyone at the Kasowitz firm.

I think it's damned obvious that he did, considering that on Wednesday, when questioned by Harris, he acted like he didn't even recognize the name Kasowitz, much less know any attorney who worked there.

I just hope she comes up with some proof, because as it stands now, her credibility has received a blow. If she doesn't have any, she should have at least named McNally when she was questioning Kavanaugh about it.  Unless she got that information from someone on Mueller's team, in which case I can see why she couldn't risk naming McNally and getting pressed to show her proof and how she got it. And if she did get it from Mueller's people, that doesn't look good, either. That blows the general consensus that Mueller's team doesn't leak, making Kavanaugh lying to Harris a good bet on his part that she wouldn't risk that.

These games are disgusting.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Shorter clip of the pertinent question/answer on Jason Overstreet's Twitter account via Sarah Kendzior: