Senate Democrats argued on Wednesday that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s implication of the president in campaign-finance violations is grounds to delay Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said that President Trump has been “implicated in a criminal plot to violate campaign-finance laws and influence the outcome of an election,” and that Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing must be postponed while the Senate Judiciary Committee continues to investigate the president.
Kavanaugh hearing must be immediately postponed so Judiciary Committee can continue vital investigation of Trump campaign criminality & obstruction of justice.
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) August 22, 2018
Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii announced that she’d canceled her meeting with Kavanaugh “because I choose not to extend a courtesy to this president who is an un-indicted co-conspirator . . . of meeting with his nominee.” She further asserted that Kavanaugh had been nominated with the understanding that he’d protect Trump once seated on the High Court.
Cohen pled guilty to eight charges on Tuesday, including tax evasion and violating campaign-finance laws, in connection with exorbitant sums paid in 2016 to silence women who claimed they’d had affairs with Trump. The president’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer said in his plea that he’d paid the money at his former boss’s request.
New Jersey senator Cory Booker said the confirmation process should be halted until special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation concludes. He echoed Blumenthal’s comments that the Senate Judiciary Committee should deal with “the matter of the president being credibly implicated, or alleged to be a criminal coconspirator” in campaign-finance crimes.
New York senator Chuck Schumer appeared to go further, saying Congress shouldn’t approve a justice who holds that presidents “are virtually above the law and only Congress can check a president’s power.”
At this moment in our nation's history, the Senate should not confirm a man to the bench who believes presidents are virtually beyond accountability, even in criminal cases; that they are essentially above the law and only Congress can check a president's power. #WhatsAtStake
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 22, 2018
Judge Kavanaugh’s refusal to say a POTUS must comply w a duly issued subpoena & Mr Cohen’s implication of POTUS in a federal crime make the danger of Kavanaugh's nomination to the SCOTUS abundantly clear.
It's a game changer & Chairman Grassley should delay confirmation hearings
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 22, 2018
NOW WATCH: ‘Cohen Testifies Trump Told Him To Commit Crime’