September 6, 2018

Kavanaugh Can’t—Or Won’t—Answer This Question About the Mueller Probe

Hmmmm.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday was either unable or unwilling to answer repeated questions from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif) about whether he had ever discussed the Mueller probe with anyone from Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres—the law firm of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz.

The tense exchange surrounding the question “Have you ever discussed Special Counsel Mueller or his investigation with anyone?” came at the tail end of nearly 12 hours of exchanges between Kavanaugh and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of his confirmation hearing. 

“I’m not sure I know everyone who works at that law firm,” Kavanaugh said at one point during his response to Harris. He then asked if she was referring to a specific person. “I would like to know the person you’re thinking of.”

“I think you’re thinking of someone and you don’t want to tell us,” the California senator responded, repeatedly declining to elaborate on her line of questioning.

The back-and-forth was briefly interrupted with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who pointed out the abundance of law firms in Washington. 

Some legal experts noted the potential significance of Kavanaugh’s seeming inability to provide a direct answer to Harris.

Others seemed more skeptical about Harris’ line of questioning:

Listen to senior reporter Stephanie Mencimer describe the raucous opening days of the Kavanaugh hearings on the latest episode of the Mother Jones Podcast:

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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