Judiciary Democrats try to delay Barrett confirmation after CNN's KFile finds omissions in Senate paperwork

 

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Judiciary Democrats try to delay Barrett confirmation after CNN's KFile finds omissions in Senate paperwork

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN  1 hr ago

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Judiciary Democrats try to delay Barrett confirmation after CNN's KFile finds omissions in Senate paperwork

© Michael Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 14: Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on October 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. With less than a month until the presidential election, President Donald Trump tapped Amy Coney Barrett to be his third Supreme Court nominee in just four years. If confirmed, Barrett would replace the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

Senate Judiciary Democrats attempted Thursday to indefinitely delay the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, arguing that they've had "inadequate" time to review her nomination after CNN's KFile found additional talks Barrett gave were not listed on her Senate paperwork.

"I believe that this rush sham process is a disservice to our committee. She has been rushed in a way that is historically unprecedented," Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday.

Blumenthal pointed to the new reporting surfaced by CNN's KFile on Wednesday that public calendars from the University of Notre Dame's law school, where Barrett was a law professor, show at least seven additional talks from 2004 to 2013, including one with the law school's anti-abortion group, were not listed on her paperwork submitted to the committee. CNN's KFile could not independently confirm Barrett's participation in the events, only that they were listed on Notre Dame's public calendars.

"The consequence of this rushed process is that we have given inadequate scrutiny to this nominee. I move to delay these proceedings so that we can do our job and ask, again, for all the documents," Blumenthal said Thursday.

Despite a tense debate with their Democratic colleagues, however, the panel's Republicans rejected the attempt to delay Barrett's nomination until after the election. The committee's GOP had ‪decided earlier Thursday to set an October 22 committee vote to advance Barrett for a full Senate vote.

CNN had reached out to Barrett's chambers for comment about the omissions, but they did not respond. Barrett is required to disclose to the Senate Judiciary Committee all public talks she has given in her professional career, a committee staffer has said.

The White House told CNN on Wednesday that Barrett had been "nothing but transparent with the committee."

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont also referred to CNN's reporting in his argument for Barrett's nomination to be delayed, saying that "records of her undisclosed speeches and materials continue to pour in."

"I'm not suggesting that Judge Barrett intentionally failed to disclose all these records in the committee. But normally we have enough time to then go back and find ones that they did fail to," Leahy said. "And I'm absolutely suggesting that the mad rush to confirm her has, predictably, bogged them up with that."

Barrett has already faced questions over initially failing to disclose some talks she gave while a law professor at Notre Dame. CNN's KFile reported last week that Barrett initially did not reveal two talks she gave in 2013 hosted by two anti-abortion student groups on paperwork provided to the Senate. Following CNN's reporting last week, Barrett submitted supplemental paperwork to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday.

At her hearing on Tuesday, Barrett said those initial omissions were an oversight due to the large volume of material she had to "find and remember" over 30 years.