CHARLES E. SCHUMEH DEMOCRATIC LFADEH
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WASHINGTON, DC 20510
July 26, 2013

The Honorable George W. Bush
Memorial Drive
Houston, TX 77024

Dear President Bush:

I am writing with a time-sensitive request regarding the nomination of your former aide Judge
Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. I understand and completely respect that you support Judge
Kavanaugh?s nomination. We have a difference of opinion on whether he is the right person for the Court
at this moment, but that is not the reason for my letter. My purpose instead is to ask you to authorize that
the complete record of Judge Kavanaugh?s service in the White House be made public so that all
Americans can be informed about this nomination and the Senate can ful?ll its constitutional advice and
consent obligations.

Under our most recent precedent in a similar case, when the Senate considered the nomination of
Justice Kagan, Republicans and Democratsjointly asked the National Archives and the Clinton Library to
provide a_ll of Justice Kagan?s records from her White House service. All of those documents were
provided to the Senate without any assertions of privilege by President Clinton, and the Archives
immediately made them public on its website. Those actions gave the Senate and the public the ability to
examine Justice Kagan?s full record and eliminated any questions about whether important information
about her previous work had been withheld.

Regrettably, my colleagues in the majority in the Senate are now suggesting the Senate depart
from that bipartisan precedent, and have declined to sign a bipartisan document request for Judge
Kavanaugh?s complete record. It appears that, on a partisan basis, they plan to request a pro-screened
subset of Judge Kavanaugh?s record, selected not by career officials of the Archives but by a private legal
team representing your presidential library. I understand that you have a right to review your
Administration?s documents before they are released, and there is nothing wrong with that. My concern
is that the Archivist of the United States, who is responsible for guiding the review and release of
responsive documents, would be cut out of this new process being contemplated by Senate Republicans,
and as a result the Senate may receive only documents that have been pre-selected and approved by the
private legal team, without any public insight or accountability. This legal team is led by an attorney
who, like Judge Kavanaugh, is an alumnus of your White House Counsel?s office, but who also has close
ties to President Trump through his current representation of Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Donald
McGahn. If implemented, this irregular approach to the nominee?s document production will inevitably
raise serious questions about the fairness and impartiality of the process, and about whether crucial
information regarding the nominee is deliberately being withheld from public scrutiny.

In order to remedy this unfortunate situation, I respectfully write to ask that you make public
Judge Kavanaugh?s full White House record, including his years as Staff Secretary. You have been an
advocate of tranSparency regarding your presidential records, and you have previously taken steps to

make portions of your Library?s collection of White House documents more available to the public. I
believe that making Judge Kavanaugh?s complete record public is consistent with your commitment to
transparency and is strongly in the public interest. While the country may be divided on whether Judge
Kavanaugh should join the Supreme Court, there ought to be no disagreement on whether the process that
leads to a continuation vote should be a fair and impartial one.

Thank you very much for considering this request, which I would be happy to discuss with you
directly at any time.

Respectfully,

Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator