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1. After I refuted "perjury" claims against Judge Kavanaugh re: his testimony on the Pryor nomination, some asked about the claim that Kavanaugh perjured himself re: #Memogate. So here goes. #SCOTUS #KavanaughHearings #KavanaughConfirmationHearings
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8. Lacking evidence, some have speculated Kavanaugh MUST have known.
@SenatorLeahy tweeted out several emails to support this claim. But if you view the individual emails, fairly and without applying hindsight, they don't quite get there.Show this thread -
9. Here's the worst email, subject line "spying," in which Miranda mentions "a friend who is a mole for us on the left." But far from proving Kavanaugh knew of theft, Email #1 suggests he was told the opposite: a Dem staffer was voluntarily sharing info.pic.twitter.com/3oGTcFre4r
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10. In the gossipy, intrigue-filled, often backstabbing worlds of Capitol Hill and D.C., having "moles" in different camps is common (cf.
@GameOfThrones). While some might view this as sleazy or unsavory, it's neither uncommon nor illegal.Show this thread -
11. Email #2 is even less incriminating. Miranda passes along info about what the
@SenJudiciary Dems are up to, but it sounds like it could easily have been gleaned through backchanneling, Capitol Hill gossip, etc.pic.twitter.com/2f8rrTqpUS
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12. The subject line says "highly confidential." As
@EdWhelanEPPC tweeted, "Leahy pretends that memo marked 'highly confidential' means that K must have known source. Because we all know that no one in D.C. overmarks things as confidential."pic.twitter.com/nyjaC8EGtB
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13. Email #3. Read it without the benefit of hindsight, i.e., not knowing about
#Memogate. Would YOU know from the face of this email that Republican@SenJudiciary staffers were improperly accessing Democratic staffers' files through a shared server?pic.twitter.com/XKGcrmdY6t
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14. Email #4. Yet again, there's no indication that this info was improperly obtained. With the benefit of hindsight, maybe Kavanaugh SHOULD have interrogated Miranda on how he got such detailed info - but that's a far cry from actual knowledge of theft.pic.twitter.com/5lCFedBxZC
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15. Email #5 from
@SenatorLeahy's Twitter feed, which makes much of the "not [for] distribution" subject line. But just because something is marked "not for distribution" doesn't mean it was stolen; it might be so marked for any number of reasons.pic.twitter.com/o61MPx3TGH
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16. Leahy's tweet also claims this email was "8 pages of material taken VERBATIM from my files." But how was Kavanaugh to have known that, since he didn't do the improper accessing? The memo simply presents the info as "Points they [Democrats] make."pic.twitter.com/HiIFrZFuW5
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17. This week, Judge Kavanaugh was asked about another email he received, containing a draft letter by
@SenJudiciary Democrats - but his response at the time, asking "Who signed this?", shows he didn't realize it was a draft.http://bit.ly/2Q8XiHHShow this thread -
18. I might have missed a few emails or new ones might emerge, but in each case, ask yourself: would a busy
@WhiteHouse lawyer, reading & responding to numerous emails a day on many different subjects, know from the email's face that it contained stolen info?Show this thread -
19. Would it have been great if Brett Kavanaugh had figured out what Manuel Miranda was doing and reported it to the authorities (as Kavanaugh testified he would have, if he had known)? Sure. But that's hindsight.
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20. There is no reason to believe Brett Kavanaugh knowingly received stolen information from the
#Memogate scandal - and no reason to believe he lied about it, in 2004, 2006, or 2018.#SCOTUS#KavanaughHearings#KavanaughConfirmationHearingsShow this thread -
P.S. I tweeted this correction earlier, but I'd like to add it to the thread for the record: as you can see from reading Email #1 (pasted again below), it came from not from Manny Miranda but from a different Senate staffer (Barbara Ledeen).pic.twitter.com/n96QLjckHX
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End of conversation
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He knew about him now. This defense strains credulity
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In 2006, Kavanaugh testified that he never saw any of the documents which, by then, he knew full well were stolen.pic.twitter.com/bE8fsNZANT
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