Grassley: Judge Kavanaugh is a Superb Candidate for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tonight made the following comment on President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees to come before the Senate. His credentials are well known, and he’s served with distinction as a judge on the esteemed D.C. Circuit for more than a decade. He is a superb mainstream candidate worthy of the Senate’s consideration,” Grassley said.

“As we have always done when reviewing nominees for lifetime-appointed judgeships, the Senate Judiciary Committee will conduct a fair and comprehensive evaluation of the nominee’s background and qualifications followed by hearings where we’ll hear directly from the nominee as we fulfill our advice and consent responsibility.”

Brett Kavanaugh currently serves as judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington. He was confirmed for the judgeship in 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.

Judge Kavanaugh previously served in the White House Counsel’s Office and then as the White House Staff Secretary under President Bush. He also served as Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel under Ken Starr.

Judge Kavanaugh received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1987 and then a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1990. He clerked for two federal appeals court judges and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. He also worked in private practice in Washington, D.C.

Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn is due in court Tuesday

President Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn is scheduled to return to federal court Tuesday for the first time since he pleaded guilty on Dec. 1 to one count of lying to federal agents about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

The retired Army lieutenant general was charged as part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into whether there was any conspiracy between Trump’s allies and Russians to influence the 2016 election.

Tuesday’s hearing appears to be a procedural step, but it could provide hints about the direction the investigation is taking in coming months.

As part of Flynn’s plea deal, he agreed to help prosecutors with other cases, and his sentencing has been delayed. However, the special counsel’s office and Flynn’s lawyers recently requested that the probation office prepare a pre-sentence report, a standard step in the process.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called for the hearing to determine why the court shouldn’t follow its standard practice of preparing a report and scheduling a sentencing date at the same time.

Flynn, who was fired as head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration, was a prominent Trump supporter during the 2016 campaign.

He served only 24 days as national security advisor in the White House before he was forced out for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador in Washington.

In the months since Flynn pleaded guilty, it’s unclear what kind of assistance he’s provided to prosecutors. The special counsel’s office has not cited him as a witness in court papers so far.

But it’s clear prosecutors believed he could be valuable enough to cut him a more favorable deal. In his plea agreement, he admitted to acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Turkey, a federal crime, but he wasn’t charged with the violation.

Flynn is not the only person from Trump’s team who agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s office. Rick Gates, the Trump campaign’s former deputy chairman, pleaded guilty in February. His sentencing has not been scheduled.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 7. He pleaded guilty last year to lying to federal agents about his contacts with Russians.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-mike-flynn-court-20180710-story.html