NOMINATIONS/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has raised concerns about indicting a sitting president and expressed his desire to overturn a ruling upholding the constitutionality of an independent counsel. And in newly unearthed video reviewed by CNN, Kavanaugh also implies that he believes there’s only one institution that should be allowed to investigate the conduct of a president: the United States Congress. While the comments are consistent with Kavanaugh’s long-standing legal views, they raise new questions about whether the appeals court judge believes a president can be subjected to an investigation conducted outside of Congress — significant now that a federal investigation looms over Trump, legal experts say…Kavanaugh’s comments from two decades ago came in the context of the work of the independent counsel Ken Starr, for whom he worked from 1994-1998, as they investigated the Clinton White House. A major question now looms over his confirmation proceedings: Whether his hostility towards independent counsels and skepticism that a sitting president can be indicted affect his views of a special counsel investigating a sitting president — namely Mueller, who is investigating Trump and whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russians. And those views could be highly consequential if Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court and later rules on any matter involving the Mueller probe, including a subpoena seeking to compel Trump’s testimony.”
–Manu Raju, “Kavanaugh said Congress should investigate a president, raising questions about his views on Mueller,” CNN politics, CNN.com, July 20, 2018 11:46 am