Orrin Hatch: “Let me answer the question, and let me address some of the specific examples my Democratic colleagues have represented…”

“Let me answer the question, and let me address some of the specific examples my Democratic colleagues have represented as precedent for their demand. One, of course, is Frank Easterbrook, who is a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which the Senator is raising. The Democrats' mere possession of a single memorandum--a 2-page amicus recommendation that Mr. Easterbrook wrote as an assistant to the Solicitor General--does not suggest that the Justice Department waived any privileges or authorized it to be disclosed. It did not. The official record of the Easterbrook confirmation hearing contains no references to this document. There is nothing in the hearing that shows a reference to it, at least as far as I know. And I am quite sure about that. After comprehensively reviewing its files, the Justice Department concluded that it never authorized the document's release. Now, last fall, I sent a letter to Senator Schumer, and then to Senator Leahy, specifically asking for information about how the Democrats obtained this memorandum that the Senator has been waving here, with impunity, by the way. To this day, I have not received a response to my question. There is probably a very good reason for it because he should not have that memorandum. I do not know how they got it.”