Leahy, P Sen

<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">=<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/judge-brett-kavanaugh-should-be-impeached-for-lying-during-his-confirmation-hearings.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/judge-brett-kavanaugh-should-be-impeached-for-lying-during-his-confirmation-hearings.html</a>graves<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls4sens001nwvm7f6b7rth3@published" data-word-count="40" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Much of Washington has spent the week focusing on whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. After the revelations of his confirmation hearings, the better question is whether he should be impeached from the federal judiciary.<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5ts9w000x3h5t9q4uaxpj@published" data-word-count="15" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">I do not raise that question lightly, but I am certain it must be raised.<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5ts9q000v3h5toa77rze9@published" data-word-count="71" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Newly released emails show that while he was working to move through President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees in the early 2000s, Kavanaugh received confidential memos, letters, and talking points of Democratic staffers stolen by GOP Senate aide Manuel Miranda. That includes research and talking points Miranda stole from the Senate server after I had written them for the Senate Judiciary Committee as the chief counsel for nominations for the minority.<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5ts9v000w3h5t33pblqa6@published" data-word-count="11" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Receiving those memos and letters alone is not an impeachable offense.<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5tsdx001q3h5te2qlntwr@published" data-word-count="50" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">No, Kavanaugh should be removed because he was repeatedly asked under oath as part of his 2004 and 2006 confirmation hearings for his position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit about whether he had received <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/kavanaugh-confirmation-hearings-patrick-leahy-points-to-email-that-suggests-judge-lied-to-senate.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.12s ease 0s; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: var(--theme-color,#ff0e50);">such information from Miranda</a>, and each time he falsely denied it.<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5tsbl000y3h5tyemngkbh@published" data-word-count="38" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">For example, in 2004, Sen. Orrin Hatch asked him directly if he received “any documents that appeared to you to have been drafted or prepared by Democratic staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” Kavanaugh responded, unequivocally, “No.”<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5tsbp00103h5t5vkijic7@published" data-word-count="45" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">In 2006, Sen. Ted Kennedy asked him if he had any regrets about how he treated documents he had received from Miranda that he later learned were stolen. Kavanaugh rejected the premise of the question, restating that he never even saw one of those documents.<p class="slate-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="slate.com/components/slate-paragraph/instances/cjls5tsbp00103h5t5vkijic7@published" data-word-count="45" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">...=<a href="http://www.alternet.org/documentaries/noam-chomsky-stars-new-documentary-about-major-risks-humanity-faces-pesticides">http://www.alternet.org/documentaries/noam-chomsky-stars-new-documentary-about-major-risks-humanity-faces-pesticides</a>American companies are legally permitted to manufacture dangerous pesticides for export—even after the chemicals have been banned in the U.S.? There are policies that create a "circle of poison"; toxic chemicals traveling around the world, ironically imported back to the U.S. through foodstuffs we eat. Circle of Poison, a groundbreaking <a href="http://www.circleofpoisonfilm.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">documentary</a> by Nick Capezzera, Evan Mascagni and Shannon Post, unveils the unrelenting corruption of this cycle. The film features interviews with Jimmy Carter, Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, Patrick Leahy, and the Dalai Lama, as well as footage from India, Mexico, Argentina, Bhutan, and the United States, in order to illustrate the global impact of the pesticide trade and how communities are fighting back.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Patrick J. Leahy

Appointed 2001

Committees: Facilities, Governance and Nominating

<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and former prosecutor, has served since 1975 in the Senate, where his legislative leadership focuses on foreign policy, national security, human rights, and humanitarian relief; technology law and innovation, privacy rights, civil liberties, and government transparency; and farm policy, environmental protection, and conservation. Ranking first in seniority, Senator Leahy is President Pro Tempore of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also is the most senior member of the Agriculture and Appropriations committees, and serves on the Rules and Administration Committee. He chairs the Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on the Department of State and Foreign Operations, and sits on its Defense; Interior, Environment; Commerce, Justice, Science; Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; and Homeland Security subcommittees. He was installed in the FOIA Hall of Fame for championing open government and is one of only two politicians ever awarded the John Peter Zenger Press Freedom Award. Senator Leahy co-founded and continues to co-chair the Congressional Internet Caucus. A Co-Chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus, he received the Harry S. Truman Award, the highest civilian honor of the National Guard Association.