- 06/11/10 04:43 PM ET
The top Republican overseeing the panel responsible for vetting Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan complained Friday that documents on her record were being withheld. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the presidential library of former President Bill Clinton was not producing records of Kagan's time in the Clinton White House quickly enough, and was withholding some material from the committee.
"I remain deeply concerned that Ms. Kagan’s records will not be fully produced in time for the Committee to conduct a proper review," Sessions said this afternoon in a statement. "With just over two weeks until the hearing, we are still waiting on nearly 70,000 pages of documents containing Ms. Kagan’s email records from her time in the Clinton White House."
Sessions has insisted on the need for the full documents from the Clinton library on Kagan's work in the counsel's office during the Democratic president's administration. The Alabama Republican had called for a slower pace for hearings than Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the judiciary panel, had scheduled.
He said that the delay and withheld documents were contributing to doubts over Kagan's nomination.
"I am also concerned that so many of the documents already provided are being hidden from public view," he said. "In the first batch, approximately 200 pages were set aside by the Clinton Library as ‘Committee Confidential.’"
Sessions expressed doubts that Kagan would be able to "suddenly be able to set aside the political agenda that has defined such a large portion of her career" as a Supreme Court justice, though many senators have indicated that they're inclined to support her nomination.
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