Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent his records request after weeks of battle with Democrats over access to Brett Kavanaugh's documents from his years in former President George W. Bush's White House. | Al Drago/Getty Images GOP goes it alone in Kavanaugh documents fight

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Friday requested Brett Kavanaugh's records from his time as White House counsel without separate documents sought by Democrats, a sharply partisan turn in the escalating clash over vetting President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

Grassley sent his request to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum after weeks of battle with Democrats over access to Kavanaugh's documents from his years in Bush's White House. Democrats have pushed for full access to the nominee's records while Republicans accuse them of trying to stall his confirmation.


Hitting Democrats for an attempted "fishing expedition" on Kavanaugh, Grassley singled out his Democratic counterpart on the committee, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, for drawing a hard line in talks.

“Even when I suggested that we jointly request documents that both sides want while continuing to negotiate other categories, the Ranking Member [Feinstein] declined," Grassley said in a statement. "The minority rejected out of hand multiple accommodations that I’d offered to assist in targeting material they believe is relevant."

Democrats are seeking all emails Kavanaugh processed while serving as Bush’s staff secretary, in addition to his time in the Bush White House counsel’s office. Republicans have countered that staff secretary-related documents are irrelevant to Kavanaugh's preconfirmation vetting, given that he has served 12 years since on the federal bench, and Grassley's document request letter cited only records from the White House counsel's office and Kavanaugh's 2006 confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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Grassley reiterated in an interview earlier this week that his goal was to hash out an accord with Feinstein over the scope of Kavanaugh documents so they can jointly file a request.

Asked about the possibility that he would make a unilateral request for records on Trump’s nominee -- as he did on Friday -- Grassley said: “I don’t want to do that. I don’t think we’ve ever done that before.”

His letter came hours after Feinstein warned the National Archives against “a biased denial of document requests” in response to the nonpartisan agency's statement that the GOP solely holds the rights to request Kavanaugh records.

After Feinstein raised questions last week about “a large team of outside private lawyers” reviewing documents from Kavanaugh’s five years in the George W. Bush White House for compliance with the Presidential Records Act, the Archives noted in its response that “exclusively” retains power to make document requests under the law.

“Your unduly restrictive reading of the law results in one political party having complete control over what records the Senate will be able to see before deciding whether a nominee should receive a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States,” Feinstein responded in a letter released Friday, describing herself as “shocked” by the Archives’ interpretation and adding that “this has never happened before” during Supreme Court confirmations.

The California senator also wrote to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero — an appointee of former President Barack Obama — that his agency’s view of GOP power over the process is a departure from Grassley’s own stated preference for the executive branch to respond to oversight requests from both parties. Grassley last year pushed for and secured the Trump administration’s agreement to respond to requests from top Democrats as well as Republicans after an initial indication that it would furnish internal information onlyto the GOP majority.

The Archives did not return a request for comment on Feinstein’s letter.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.