On Wednesday and Thursday Senator Harris kept coming back to a very specific set of questions for Judge Kavanaugh: did you have a conversation with someone at the law firm of Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres and if so, who was that person? Here’s the video from Wednesday evening:
Has Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had a conversation about Robert Mueller or his investigation with anyone at Trump's personal attorney's law firm?
We don’t know. He refused to answer my question. pic.twitter.com/PAKxDGvEtZ
— Vice President Kamala Harris Archived (@VP46Archive) September 6, 2018
Remember, Marc Kasowitz is the President’s personal attorney and, for a time, was representing him in regard to the Special Counsel’s investigation.
Yesterday when Senator Harris went back to this line of questioning she finally got something more than panicked confusion and flop sweat from Judge Kavanaugh. Specifically:
Update:
– Kavanaugh acknowledges close friendship with Kasowitz atty Ed McNally
– White House and Kasowitz firm say McNally neither helped prep Kavaugh nor discussed Mueller probe with him. https://t.co/o41jnTDhoQ— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) September 6, 2018
But what, exactly, is going on here. As silly as it is for Judge Kavanaugh to have tried to brazen out these two questions if there was just regular, social contact, I think there’s a really good reason for his response. I think that Senator Harris keeps coming back to these two questions because she has something that she and her staff have concluded is solid that links Judge Kavanaugh; his friend Ed McNally at Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres; and something inappropriate and/or improper in regard to the Special Counsel and his investigation. And Judge Kavanaugh does not know, or is not completely sure, what it is that Senator Harris has or how she and her staff got it. Which is why he kept trying to flip the dynamic and get her to give him the answer of who she was referring to at Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres and what it might be about. As you can see in the video above, she was prepared for that on Wednesday and she was prepared for it yesterday as well.
So what does Senator Harris and her staff have? I have no idea. And neither does Judge Kavanaugh, White House Counsel Don McGahn, Senator Grassley, or Senator McConnell. It may be that Senator Harris and her staff actually have nothing more than a tip that Judge Kavanaugh is good friends with Ed McNally and they socialize, so she decided to bluff and see if she could trip him up really badly. But given his reactions, as well as the multiple explanations required to get to even the semblance of a reasonable answer from both Judge Kavanaugh and the spokesperson for Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres before finally settling on that yes, Judge Kavanaugh knows Ed McNally and they’ve spoken in the last year, I think she’s engaged in more than just a bluff.
That moment where Kavanaugh mouthed “Kasowitz Benson and Torres” like he was hearing the words for the first time? His good buddy has worked there 9 years. https://t.co/XjcddT9V97 https://t.co/wYaIFD6YNm
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) September 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1037773924598210562
If this was just Senator Harris bluffing, then we won’t hear much more about it. But based on her statements during the hearings, doing news media hits after the hearings, and on social media, I don’t think that’s the case.
Kamala Harris just said that she received reliable information that Judge Kavanaugh had a conversation with someone from the Kasowitz firm…which is what led her to ask the question last night.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 6, 2018
Rather, I think she’s got specific information about not just who Judge Kavanaugh spoke with, but what they discussed. And that she and her staff have vetted and validated it enough to weaponize it. The outstanding question is what is the end game of the Kamala Harris gambit? Was it just to spook Judge Kavanaugh during the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings in the hope he screws up? Or does she intend to actually make it public when it is most strategically advantageous to her and the Democratic caucus’s attempts to defeat his nomination?
Stay tuned!
Open thread.
Mary G
I loved the flop sweat when she looked over her glasses and said “Think very carefully before you answer, sir.” My guess is that she has something and is giving him the weekend to lose sleep over it. The vote isn’t until the 20th.
She didn’t thrill me before this week, but now I am a total fan woman.
TenguPhule
We definitely will not hear about it here first.
TenguPhule
Did the IC finally get off their impotent asses and do something right for a change? //
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Here, here!
Also, already corrected.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: They did a good job last week with the Bruce Ohr leak.
As for this case, from Yashar Ali’s reporting, apparently Senator Harris’s source is from within Kasowitz’s law firm. So the White House is searching for it’s anonymous op-ed writer and the President’s personal attorney’s law firm is trying to figure out who was in contact with Harris’s staff and what that person told them.
There’s quite a few people in full pucker mode right now. If I was Don McGahn and his merry band of judicial nominee trolls, I’d be very, very worried.
MoxieM
Don’t know where she’s going with this, but, hot damn! it is terrific watching her go after him. Don’t know about anyone else, but I would not want those prosecutorial eyes drilling into me with the heat of a thousand suns. “I see you”. Boy, nowhere to hide. She is magnificent at her job. “Do not try to bullshit me with that white boy bullshit, white boy. I see you.”
Question for the pros: Will there be an opportunity for further questions with the general Senate, or just a vote? In other words, is there an opportunity for Sen.Harris to bring up whatever it is she knows before a final vote? (Or can she just lay it out privately?)
veniceriley
Glad to see people appreciating my Senator’s skills more and more.
donnah
Thanks, Adam, for updates.
So if Harris does have key info, when will it best be released? How much time is left before decisions are finalized? I’m thrilled that she and Corey Booker and other Democratic leaders really stood up. I wish it would make a difference.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I’ve always been a fan. She’s smart and tough as nails. I don’t agree with her 100% on everything, but I don’t need to.
Cheryl from Maryland
So cool, so icy, so polite. MOAR!
TenguPhule
@donnah:
Final Vote is scheduled for the 20th.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
OT, but I think Jon Husted is trying to expand turnout for the general this fall by mailing out absentee ballot applications. Normally, I would like this but the timing and the person involved strikes me as very suspect. I don’t recall the Ohio Sec of State doing this two years ago. I could be wrong though.
“In the Buckeye State, we make it EASY TO VOTE and HARD TO CHEAT.”
Adam L Silverman
@donnah: The Senate votes, or is supposed to, on 20 September provided the calendar stays as set. So that’s your timeline.
kindness
Kamela…..you rock girl! Make us proud.
Mary G
Apparently Trump buddy Senile Lou Dobbs has called George W. Bush a “radical liberal.”
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: She’s my heterosexual woman crush right now.
TenguPhule
Things black people are no longer allowed to do in America: Live in their own homes.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I’m fairly certain that the real life motto is actually the reverse.
TenguPhule
A rare sighting of Florida woman in Connecticut.
Warner Brothers Cartoons are no longer works of fiction.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I’ll update your records?
donnah
Thanks,TenguePhule and Adam. It’s hard to keep up. And I’m going to out of town soon and again shortly after that, so I’d like to try keeping in step.
Sad to say, Obama will reportedly be in Cleveland with Rich Cordray while I’m out of town. dammit!
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: This one is just weird. I’m wondering whether the cop had been drinking.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
Hah! Seriously, this is a ploy to help him and Mike DeWine get elected to Lt Governor and Governor of Ohio. They never did this two years ago in a presidential election and now all of a sudden, Husted is all about making it easy to vote in a mid-term election in which he is running in which is probably going to be a wave election for Democrats? Totally a ploy. Hope it backfires on him.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: You have an edit function, so why can’t I? Thanks for the post Adam.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Drinking, high or exhausted. Perhaps all of the above. It is Texas, after all.
Mary G
Hilarious O.T. dog thread:
jl
If Harris has something, I hope it is very solid. I was reading last night about how Kavanaugh was involved in getting stolen Democratic Committee memos has repeatedly committed perjury about it. How did he slide on that? Is there more evidence coming out now on it?
Very impressive how Harris went into criminal trial mode.
TenguPhule
@donnah: And the government shuts down again if the financing bill is not signed by the 30th.
NotMax
Yup. Never ask a witness a question to which you don’t already know the answer. Fishing expeditions are for the weekends.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule:
Old news, remember Skip Gates? //
Seriously, that’s cop’s lucky that woman wasn’t carrying. She would have been within her rights to shot the intruder(cop).
Doug R
Ms Harris/Booker 2020! does not strike me as a bluffer.
JPL
I imagine that Kavanaugh is going to have a few restless nights.. At least I hope so, since trump has caused more than a few restless nights for all of us.
Bill Arnold
I love that video clip.
Judge Kavanaugh needs some botox or better self-control – his white boy microexpressions are … crude. (Writing as a white male who has been called a boy (by a female, who had a gaze similar to that of Senator Harris) when adult.)
And Senator Harris, she was having entirely too much fun. :-)
Also been impressed by S. Whitehouse (been following his twitter feed for a while); he has some talent too.
Kay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s normal. They do a universal absentee ballot application mailing.
pat
I think it was the Daily Beast that published some of the emails that had been marked Confidential and they confirm that Kavanaugh was LYING about several things. In other words, committing perjury.
Also I happened to be listening to NPR yesterday when all the talk was about how that law firm had 390 employees in 9 different cities, how could anyone expect Kava to remember if he had spoken to one of them??
It was pretty transparent that he was lying.
Ohio Mom
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I don’t keep track but I know we have received unrequested absentee ballots at least once before. I’m guessing that was in 2004.
My math is as follows: we moved into this house in 2002; a few years later, the people we bought the house from died in a car accident in an ice storm. That fall we received absentee ballots for ourselves and the past owners.
I called the Board of Elections to tell them they could take the previous owners off their list but was told, “Not without a death certificate, or until they don’t vote in two presidential elections.” (Ohio just shortened this time period).
Anyway, that was when that slimeball Ken Blackwell was Secretary of State and Bush was running for re-election.
I agree that Husted’s timing is suspect, and that there are risks in sending out absentee ballots. Not the least of which will be right-wingers coercing the votes of family members.
ruemara
The perjury evidence keeps the door open for impeachment – one of the few precedents for impeaching USSC justices. granted, almost 100 years ago,
ruemara
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Uhhh, the actual man who owned the apartment is dead. The cop (the woman) is “an emotional wreck” and “had worked a long shift”, according to the department.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
Dynamite requires an explosion to dentonate. This is ususally a blasting cap or primacord.
When burned, dynamite just burns vigorously .
Old, improperly stored dynamite however, can “sweat”, where the nitroglycerine migrates to the outside making the stick highly unstable.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: I believe you because you are Kay. But I honestly don’t remember getting absentee ballots on a regular basis. Not that I claim to have a great memory.
It strikes me as a tremendous unnecessary expense. They aren’t doing it to see which ones are returned, are they?
Also, there are still a few weeks left to register to vote. Will people who register say tomorrow, also get absentee ballots in the mail? If not, is it legit to treat voters differently by not giving everyone the exact same chance to vote absentee?
jl
@Bill Arnold: “Also been impressed by S. Whitehouse”
Yes. I watched him last night when I learned up a little on this. Whitehouse is doing a good job clearly articulating the many problems with the hearing, and forcing Grassley to basically admit that it was rigged, and the GOP is ramming this through because they have the majority. Not sure what good it will do, but good to have it on the record if the integrity of it comes into serious question later.
I like that Harris and Whitehouse are not chewing the scenery (won’t name any names, not sayyin’ just sayin’, except someone needs to understand that Shantner does that stuff so much better) , but they are doing real work and the drama comes from that.
lamh36
I think Kamala Harris is a smart woman…and from all accounts she was a hard hitting successful prosecutor.
So if she was asking these questions…then she already has the answers, and she knows when to bluff and when not to..
Her questions do seem too particular to be random bluffs.
Shana
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Call me cynical if you want, but I’d strongly suggest everyone who uses one of those ballots makes a copy of it before they send it back. Having the GOP in charge of ballots makes me very uneasy.
Under a different administration here in Virginia it was known that if you didn’t check a certain not obvious box indicating that you didn’t have a Jr. as part of your name it would likely get bounced.
jl
@jl: Sorry, at this point, we have to hope that Harris was doing some real work, we don’t know yet. But her manner suggests to IANAL me that it is something important.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
It started in 2012, I think. They send everyone an application for a ballot, not the ballot. The consolidated polling places at the same time- they’re encouraging absentee by mail- it’s cheaper. I think it makes sense – if they can get a third of people “voted” by election day there’s less of a chance of long lines and errors on election day.
Everyone in Ohio can vote “in person absentee” so those who register later can vote in person absentee or on election day.
I was tempted to apply for a mail ballot this year- I just wanted to see if it works properly- but I do in-person absentee at the Bd of Elections across from my office and I’m obsessive enough to want to deliver it myself :)
Kay
We’re having a big canvass day in Ohio tomorrow. I’m doing Galbraith, US House, with my friend Tim. And other people, hopefully, but I mean I’m walking with Tim. He’s extremely nice and people like him – he;ll get some people to vote :)
We got a Dem list so I don’t have to talk to any Trump supporters, thank fucking God. I’m in no mood for their shit.
Dan B
@donnah: I believe the actions of Corey Booker and Kamala Harris will make a difference, if they demonstrate similar bravery. Both were willing to risk censure. Thus is news especially if my Branding expert is correct. He says the Democratic Party’s brand is “Dems are wimps.” It’s not true but the perception is Dems only want to fight clean. That both Booker and Harris were willing to get bloodied is “news” since Dems have followed the rules for decades. Then we can get to the story that Grassley hid Kavanaugh’s racial views and Grassley hid Kavanaugh’s conspiracy to hide Russian crimes and treason.
I would love yo know how Harris and Booker keep this in the news. It seems that Booker wants to be censured. He’s heard Gandhi’s mantra, First they ignore. Then they attack. And then you win. (or sorta like that)
Shana
@Shana: Adding that that was for registering to vote. For absentees you need to get witnesses to sign that you’ve filled in your ballot, then seal it inside an envelope, just closing the flap isn’t sufficient, signing the envelope and then sealing it inside another envelope before sending it back. If any little part of that isn’t done correctly they throw out the ballot.
Millard Filmore
@ruemara:
How open is the door for fulfilling his Supreme Court duties from prison for this perjury?
Miss Bianca
@lamh36:
I agree with you. That old saw about lawyers, that they never ask a question unless they already know the answer, would seem to hold doubly true of prosecutors.
trollhattan
She was California’s AG for six years so if Senator Harris is on to something like a terrier on a rat, i’m inclined to believe she’s not bluffing. This overinflated Teflon asshat may not be affected but let’s see what happens before his coronation.
jl
@Dan B: Yes, what Booker is doing is very important too. But he needs lessons from Harris and Whitehouse on how to make a real impact.
Before last night, I didn’t understand the depths of Kavanaugh’s hackery. And I don’t like that some reporters seem to be delivering GOP talking points on the hearing and passing it off as reporting. I heard some woman named, I think, Crowley(sp?) do just that on CBS last night.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Thanks!
jl
@jl: Or instead of ‘real impact’, I meant ‘really serious drama’.
ruemara
@Millard Filmore: We’d need to hold both houses, but, receipt of stolen goods, 4(?) incidences of perjury prior, this one – pretty good.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Yutsano: I thought I was. :-(
rikyrah
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s a trick bag.
Or, it can be a trick bag.
Is he sending applications to everyone?
OR
Is he sending Absentee BALLOTS?
Applications are ok.
BALLOTS, where the voter didn’t request one is another problem.
Once the BALLOT goes out, that voter is placed on a WHO VOTED list, and even if they never got the Ballot, when they go into vote,they will.be forced to vote a PROVISIONAL ballot. Ohio doesn’t have the best record with Provisional Ballots.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Shana:
The absentee ballots go to my local county Board of Elections and I believe there are two members from each party on the Board, so I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried this could boost R turnout since I believe older people tend to vote absentee and tend to be Republican. That’s part of why Ohio is a reddish state; the population is aging and young people are moving away.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@rikyrah:
They’re just applications.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kay:
I’ve done it twice already; first for the 2016 general election and again for the May primary earlier this year. Apparently, it works ok since there’s a website and an app now that let’s you track when your Board gets the application, when that’s sent and when it receives your ballot for counting.
Gravenstone
@Jay: “Quarter stick” is basically an oversized firecracker called an M100 in the states. Just a portion of gunpowder in a waxed compression tube with a length of cannon fuse. Doesn’t require a blasting cap.
SC54HI
Have not been able to follow all of the hearings or listen to much of them.
Would like to know if the questions previously raised by Sen Blumenthal about Kavanaugh’s finances came up at all? If not, will anything more be said or done about this matter?
J R in WV
When a lawyer tells you, under oath, to “think very carefully before you answer this question!” — that’s the time to think very hard, carefully, before you answer!!
Go, Senator Prosecutor Harris!!! You Rockin’ his world!!!
eemom
The exchange was great, but I don’t understand why Harris didn’t shove a roster of the firm’s lawyers in Kav’s fat face right then and there.
CaseyL
The info Harris has will have to be tantamount to a nuclear strike if she believes presenting it to the full Senate will change any votes. GOPers are determined to confirm him, regardless of anything he’s done. I doubt even absolute proof of a quid pro quo between Kavanaugh and Trump will change their minds.
germy
Pardon if this has been answered before, but does anyone know the name of the “mole” who was feeding republicans stolen Democratic emails and info?
feebog
Proud of my junior Senator. Her cross examination of Kavanaugh should be required viewing for every law student in the country. And yes, she has the receipts.
Kathleen
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Hi, Lady! Did you get my text?
pat
@germy:
Miranda. Michael? Some other first name that starts with M?
germy
@pat:
?
Ben Cisco
@MoxieM:
And the rock cried out, “Ain’t no hiding lace…”
pat
@germy:
The guy who stole the dems emails. Manual Miranda? Strange name, but it came up several times when I was listening to the hearings yesterday.
CarolPW
@germy: Manuel Miranda, senate judiciary counsel at the time of the document theft.
Geoboy
Never mind impeaching Kavanaugh. What’s the maximum penalty for X counts of perjury as X approaches a very large number? It’s going to be hard for him to vote on Supreme Court cases when he’s in prison.
Christopher H Green
The key thing here I think is that Kamala Harris’s experience form california includes a lot of time as a big time DA prosecuting a lot of cases and getting a lot of convictions. And attorney general of california is also big-time. Probably second only to the actual US attorney general. If there’s ever an impeachment trial in the senate, she clearly should be leading it, just based on experience alone.
Ben Cisco
@Ben Cisco: place. That was supposed to say place. Dammit.
Honus
@Gravenstone: an M80 and s quarter stick are two different things, trust me. But either one will blow your face off and blow off your fingers. I once reduced a 2”x18”x24” piece of stone to shards with an M80.
burnsppbesq
@germy:
Manuel Miranda.
Achrachno
@Geoboy: Since he was so blatant, can he be charged next week by someone? Seems like there may be multiple issues with this guy — do any states have the ability to charge him with anything, first thing Monday morning maybe? I suppose we’d need federal charges on the perjury. How about the apparent gambling debts that someone conveniently made disappear? Can anyone get a formal investigation going on that smelly incident?
lower podunk
@Christopher H Green: That’s not how the process works.
The House investigates through one (or more, I guess) of its committees and, if that committee finds evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors, draws up articles of impeachment. Then the full House votes on the article(s). If one or more pass, the person in question has then been impeached.
That’s when it moves to the Senate, for trial and possible conviction and removal from office. The Senate is effectively a jury of 100. So Kamala Harris in this proceeding would be a “juror”. The “prosecutors” are selected from the House to present the case to the Senate. Once the case has been presented, the Senate votes on whether to find the person guilty/not guilty. If guilty, they are removed from office. If not, they remain in office.
For recent impeachment, conviction, and removal from office, see U.S. federal judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. (2010). For impeachment without removal from office, see President Bill Clinton.
/C-Span nerd :)
lower podunk
Also too, even though this is a dying thread, I just wanted to give a thumbs-up shout-out to my Senator Richard Blumenthal, and also Maizie Hirono, who has been a force of nature in her questioning. All in all, a valiant fight this week by the Dems of the Judiciary Committee. I hope that whatever Senator Harris has been insinuating in her questioning comes to fruition. But whatever that outcome, we have seen a fierce pushback from the Dems this week, with the possibility of additional info to drop. They have done the best they could with the hand they were dealt. And additional cudos to both Sheldon Whitehouse and Blumenthal for their compassionate yet mature discussions with the young people who testified this afternoon (a Parkland survivor, a 13-year-old from PA with multiple chronic pre-existing conditions, and a teenager from Maine with asthma).
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Harris’s emails are among the best of the 25-40 I get a day. Well written, smart and informative. If she’s not running for president at least one day soon, she’ll have pretty much a lifetime spot in the senate. But I’d bet the senate is just a warm up for her. She’s smart, cool, can sure bring the heat, and politically she seems pretty damn good.
A lot to like.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
That was hilllarious.
low-tech cyclist
Southpaw:
Lawyers know which law firms their buddies work at. It’s just part of the landscape for them.
And McNally is a big-time partner at Kasowitz. Here’s the first paragraph of their bio on him:
This guy sounds like a Big Fucking Deal in legal circles. And he’s one of Kavanaugh’s friends. You can’t tell me Kavanaugh wasn’t quite aware that his big-deal buddy Ed McNally was a partner at Kasowitz. Fuck that noise.