Republicans get Jackson records mid-hearing, hours after Democrats

"How would we know to request the information?" Cruz asked.
Dick Durbin, Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2021
By Madeleine Hubbard

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., admitted that Democratic lawmakers received some of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's judicial records from the White House hours before Republicans, who were unaware of the documents' existence, obtained them.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, referenced Jackson's probation recommendation records during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that he and his staff had not seen the documents.

After the Senate Judiciary Committee took a dinner break, Sen. Cruz said Republicans received the probation records as they walked into the room and that the White House had given the information to Democrats earlier in the day.

"The information that we received from the White House, I'm told everyone had access to if they want it," Durbin said. "And now you have it, just a matter of hours after we received it."

Several other Republican senators, including Ranking Judiciary Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, echoed Cruz's concerns and said they had just received the documents.

Durbin said that the senators would have known about the missing documents after Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., "launched his attack on the judge."

Kennedy asked Durbin about how the senators were supposed to know the White House had the papers.

"Did you have to be clairvoyant to know they had it?" he asked.

Durbin claimed that "most of this information was published in The Washington Post five days ago, alright? This is not confidential information."

Cruz later asked Durbin: "How would we know to request the information?"

The Democratic Whip said he would note Cruz's concerns for the record.

Grassley posted on Twitter about the situation:

"Throughout Judge Jackson vetting process I’ve called for non public docs from both WH &sentencing commission so we can hv thorough review 2nite we find out Democrats again w/held relevant docs from Rs til 11th hr I ask again: what r Democrats trying to hide?" he wrote.