Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed an ethics complaint against Democrat Senator Cory Booker for deliberately breaking Senate rules and releasing confidential Senate Judiciary Committee documents for political gain. Booker did so during the confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
"By publicly releasing Committee Confidential records, Sen. Booker appears to have violated provisions 5 and/or 6 of Rule 29 of the Standing Rules of the Senate (Rev. Jan. 24, 2013)," Judicial Watch details in a letter delivered to to the chairman and co-chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics
Wednesday. "We hereby request that the Senate Ethics Committee conduct a preliminary investigation into whether Sen. Booker violated Senate Rules by releasing Committee Confidential records through his social media accounts."
Here's what the rules state:
5. Any Senator, officer or employee of the Senate who shall disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees and offices of the Senate shall be liable, if a Senator, to suffer expulsion from the body; and if an officer or employee, to dismissal from the service of the Senate, and to punishment for contempt.
6. Whenever, by the request of the Senate or any committee thereof, any documents or papers shall be communicated to the Senate by the President or the head of any department relating to any matter pending in the Senate, the proceedings in regard to which are secret or confidential under the rules, said documents and papers shall be considered as confidential, and shall not be disclosed without leave of the Senate.
Judicial Watch has also provided a series of admissions by Booker to prove he indeed broke the rules.
Weds—I broke committee rules by reading from "committee confidential" docs.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 7, 2018
Thurs—Cornyn threatened me with expulsion.
He then changed his story & backtracked. Now he's back at it threatening an ethics investigation b/c we exposed this sham process. https://t.co/FEf4p65iDl
“Senator Booker, in an absurd invocation of ‘Spartacus,’ explicitly invited his expulsion from the Senate in his egregious violation of the rules and contempt for the rule of law and the Constitution,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton released in a statement. “Will the Senate assert the rule of law in the Booker case or allow mob rule to be the new standard?”