Sen. Cory Booker Claims He Violated Senate Rules, Challenges Republicans to Expel Him

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) attempted to inject controversy into the third day of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing Thursday when, by his own reckoning, he violated Senate rules and leak confidential emails from Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House.

“Sen. Cornyn actually made a very good point,” Booker said of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who challenged Booker on his repeated reference to confidential materials.

Booker then admitted he was in violation of the Senate rule Cornyn had called him on, which allows for expulsion from the Senate. “I knowingly violated the rules that were put forth and I’m told that the committee confidential rules have knowing consequences,” he said, and then sought to justify his actions as “civil disobedience”:

Sir, I come from a long line, as all of us do as Americans, [and] understand what that kind of civil disobedience is and I understand the consequences. So I am right now before your … process is finished, I am going to release the email about racial profiling. And I under the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate. And if Sen. Cornyn believes that I violated Senate rules, I openly invite and accept the consequences of my team releasing that email right now.

Booker began referencing an email chain, which he claims Kavanaugh was on, titled “racial profiling” Wednesday night. The chain is one of many of the hundreds of thousands of documents from Kavanaugh’s time as White House staff secretary that were categorized as “committee confidential” by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), meaning committee members may review them but they are not to be released to the public.

Booker, like his Democratic colleagues on the committee, repeatedly objected to this categorization generally, but pushed specifically on this email chain, repeatedly claiming their was no “national security” or “personal information” justification for the determination of confidentiality. Cornyn had also suggested the determination could have been made because the emails constituted privileged legal advice Kavanaugh was providing President Bush.

Booker claimed the determination process was tainted with partisan bias and was hiding important information from the public. “No Senate rule accounts for Bill Burke’s partisan review of the documents,” Booker said, referring to the lawyer who once served in the White House with Kavanaugh and assisted in the confidentiality determination process. “This partisan operative, following his involvement in this process, that I think, in my opinion, undermined the process.”

Reporters, however, later learn that Booker’s racial profiling emails may have already been cleared for public release early Thursday morning, rendering his “civil disobedience” moot. Fox News’s Shannon Bream, for example, cited Senate staffers making this claim:

So, now we're being told (by Committee staffers) that SenBooker knew BEFORE he made these statements – that the documents in question had already been cleared for release. That's a significant claim to make, so I've asked his office directly. Will update if/when I get response. https://t.co/lNxx3wEVCZ

— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) September 6, 2018

When Chairman Grassley tried to regain control of the hearing, Booker continued to proudly insist that he was breaking the rules. “I’m knowingly violating the rules,” he said.

“OK, how many times do want to tell us that,” Grassley interrupted.

“I’m saying right now that I’m releasing committee confidential documents,” Booker told the committee once again.

An incensed Cornyn then tried to take Booker to task for his stand, which he saw as a publicity stunt tied to Booker’s rumored 2020 presidential ambitions.

“Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate or of confidentiality of the documents that we are privy to,” Cornyn said, continuing:

This is no different than releasing classified information that is deemed classified by the executive branch because you happen to disagree with classification decision. That is irresponsible and outrageous. And I hope the senator will reconsider his decision because no senator deserves to sit on this committee or serve in the Senate in my view if they decide to be a law unto themselves and willingly flout the rules of the Senate and determinations of confidentiality and classification.

“That is irresponsible and conduct unbecoming a senator,” Cornyn told Booker and the rest of the committee.

The “racial profiling” emails were not the only threatened leaks from the committee confidential documents Thursday. The New York Times also obtained a number of committee confidential emails leaked by a source presumably close to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s proceedings Thursday morning.