As if the American people needed another reason to oppose the confirmation of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee delivered one.
Democratic Rep. Adam Smith warned on Monday that if Trump refuses to cooperate with a possible Mueller subpoena for an interview, it’s no guarantee that the conservative Supreme Court would force him to comply.
Congressman Smith said that the Supreme Court has essentially become a wholly political entity and would likely go along with whatever Trump and his GOP loyalists want.
In an interview with CNN, Smith said: “Legally, it’s clear: You can’t ignore a subpoena, even if you’re the president of the United States. … However, remember the Supreme Court that we have. If this goes all the way up to this Supreme Court … this Supreme Court seems to make its decisions based on what Donald Trump and the Republican Party want, as opposed to precedents or the Constitution.”
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Brett Kavanaugh thinks SCOTUS “wrongly decided” on Nixon
For clues about what Trump’s new Supreme Court pick would mean for the ongoing Robert Mueller investigation, all we need to do is examine his previous statements.
As the same CNN report pointed out, “Brett Kavanaugh … said in 1999 that the Nixon case may have been ‘wrongly decided’ in an interview with a publication called Washington Lawyer.”
The Supreme Court unanimously forced Nixon to turn over the infamous Watergate tapes, and Kavanaugh cast doubt on that 1974 decision.
If that same mindset is applied to forcing Trump to comply with a potential Robert Mueller subpoena, it could save the president from the special counsel.
For the American people demanding answers about the president’s corruption, this is an unacceptable outcome. It makes it even more critical that Democrats in Congress stand united against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.