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Grassley Says He’ll Bump Graham as Judiciary Chairman

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is planning to take back the gavel of the influential Judiciary Committee if Republicans keep control of the Senate after the 2020 election, The Hill reports.

“Grassley chaired the Judiciary Committee for four years, from 2015 to 2019, but handed over the top spot to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in January so that he could take over the Finance Committee.”

“But under Senate GOP rules, Grassley hits his term limit for the finance panel at the end of 2020. He’s informed Graham that he intends to use his seniority to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee starting in 2021.”

Grassley to Trade Judiciary for Finance

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) plans to trade his Senate Judiciary Committee gavel to lead the Finance Committee next year, he said on Friday — leaving Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in line to replace him as chairman, Politico reports.

“Grassley’s move to Finance wasn’t a given, since the Judiciary panel has played an outsized role in the successful confirmation of more than 80 of President Trump’s nominees to lifetime appointments on the federal bench. That number could include future Supreme Court justices beyond Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in the next Congress, heightening the influence of the Judiciary chairman.”

McClatchy: “Graham is poised to become the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, giving him both influence and exposure — and a new, politically risky stature as a Democratic target.”


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Grassley Says Judiciary Workload Discourages Women

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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) predicted that there would be more Republican women on his panel next year, after suggesting that the panel’s workload was a deterrent, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Grassley: “It’s a lot of work – maybe they don’t want to do it. My chief of staff of 33 years tells me we’ve tried to recruit women and we couldn’t get the job done.”

“Mr. Grassley later returned to clarify that he did not mean to imply women could not handle the committee’s workload, but rather that it made it less appealing to senators of both genders.”

Grassley Demands Christine Blasey Ford’s Therapy Notes

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Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to Christine Blasey Ford’s attorneys, requesting evidence to buttress her sexual assault claim that has “put Judge (Brett) Kavanaugh on trial before the nation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Grassley said that Dr. Ford’s attorneys “have withheld evidence that senators need to evaluate the allegations before voting on the nomination of President Trump’s Supreme Court pick.”

“Mr. Grassley requested notes from Dr. Ford’s therapy sessions, recordings of the lie detector test she took, and exchanges she had with the news media. The two-page letter also questioned Dr. Ford’s truthfulness.”

Grassley Sets Deadline for Ford to Testify

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Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Christine Blasey Ford that she must send him documents by 10 a.m. on Friday in order to testify Monday against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, CNBC reports.

“The deadline tightens the screws on Ford to testify in a public Senate hearing under oath about her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers.”

Meanwhile, CNN reports Grassley offered to send staffers to California to interview Ford, “if that makes her more comfortable.”

Grassley Warns Trump to Keep McGahn

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“In a rare warning from a leading Republican lawmaker, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) told President Trump to keep Don McGahn as the top White House lawyer,” Roll Call reports.

“Trump announced Wednesday that McGahn would leave his White House post this fall, but after the expected confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Grassley reacted to the announcement with his own tweet, expressing concern with the coming departure of an attorney who has urged the president to fully cooperate with Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s Russia election meddling probe.”

Quote of the Day

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“If I were President of the United States and I had a lawyer that told me I could pardon myself, I think I would hire a new lawyer.”

— Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA), quoted by CNN, on President Trump claiming he had an “absolute right” to pardon himself.

Tweet of the Day

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“Since the White House leaks like a sieve will one of the leakers tell me, does @POTUS do his own tweeting? Or does someone help him? Or does he dictate into the microphone? He’s much more prolific than I am.”

— Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), on Twitter.

Grassley Tries to Nudge Justices Into Early Retirement

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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) “encouraged Supreme Court justices flirting with retirement to immediately step down, saying he would like to push through a nominee before the midterm elections,” Politico reports.

Said Grassley: “I just hope that if there is going to be a nominee, I hope it’s now or within two or three weeks, because we’ve got to get this done before the election. So my message to any one of the nine Supreme Court justices, if you’re thinking about quitting this year, do it yesterday.”

Republicans Quietly Blow Up ‘Blue Slips’

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Politico: “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is burning the blue slip for some judicial nominees. The Iowa Republican announced Thursday that he is going ahead with a confirmation hearing for a nominee to the powerful appellate courts despite the objections of a Democrat who had been blocking the nomination for months. The move will likely escalate the judicial wars in the Senate.”

“The blue slip process is a century-old Senate tradition that says the Judiciary Committee doesn’t hold a confirmation hearing for potential judges without approval from permission from the candidate’s home-state senators… Previous committee chairs have rigidly adhered to the blue-slip rule for district court nominees, whose courts span just a single state.  But they have been more flexible for the more influential and powerful circuit courts.  Democrats pointed out that Grassley, as chairman during the final two years of Obama’s presidency, declined to hold hearings for nine of Obama’s judicial picks because of the blue slip policy.”

Grassley Says Cruz Amendment May Be ‘Subterfuge’

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Iowa Public Radio that he probably won’t support an amendment by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to the Senate’s Obamacare repeal bill.

“Cruz proposes allowing insurance companies to sell two types of healthcare policies, one that is compliant with the Affordable Care Act and one that is not. Grassley says he’s concerned how Cruz’s amendment might affect people with pre-existing conditions.”

Said Grassley: “There’s a real feeling that that’s subterfuge to get around pre-existing conditions. If it is subterfuge and it has the effect of annihilating the pre-existing condition requirement that we have in the existing bill, than obviously I would object to that.”

Grassley Rankles GOP with New Comey Investigation

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“Republicans are wary of Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) decision to launch a Judiciary Committee investigation into the firing of former FBI director James Comey,” The Hill reports.

Said Grassley: “There should be no improper interference with FBI investigations to favor any elected official or candidate of either party.”

“Grassley’s announcement took his Republican colleagues by surprise, and several said they are uncomfortable with the addition of yet another investigation that could target the Trump White House.”

Grassley Says Trump Would Be Immune from Blackmail

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Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) told WBZ in Boston that he’s not concerned that Russia may have information which could compromise President-elect Donald Trump.

Said Grassley: “It seems to me that when you go back through the campaign and all the things that Trump said that ought to give him political problems and all the things that were caught on tape  —  that he would probably just as soon not have the world know about it  –  it’s kind of improbable to me that anybody who knows anything about Trump  —  that’s going to end up hurting Trump. And he was elected President of the United States.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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