Judge Misleads Senators on Detainees?

So sayeth Sens. Durbin, D-Il., and Leahy, D-Vt. From Mr. Lewis at the Times. Durbin’s question came during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. I foresee more on this in the days to come.

Mr. Durbin asked Judge Kavanaugh about his role in screening the nomination to an appeals court of William J. Haynes IV, who was the Pentagon’s general counsel and was involved in creating many of the administration’s interrogation policies for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.“What did you know about Mr. Haynes’s role in crafting the administration’s detention and interrogation policies?” Mr. Durbin asked.Mr. Kavanaugh replied: “Senator, I was not involved and am not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants and so I do not have any involvement in that.”In a news report first broadcast by National Public Radio, those comments were compared with an account last month in The Washington Post that Judge Kavanaugh had told colleagues in the White House in 2002 his view that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court would probably reject any administration claim that detainees were not entitled to lawyers. Judge Kavanaugh had served as a law clerk to Justice Kennedy.

Incidentally, happy Independence Day y’all!