Sunday, May 22, 2011

Newly released emails reveal Elena Kagan coordinated cover up of her involvement in Obamacare's legal defense

That's certainly the implication of emails unearthed by JudicialWatch (hat tip: The Daily Caller).

Emails between Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and members of the Obama Administration reveal she was more involved with President Obama’s health-care law than was disclosed previously...

...the documents show that Kagan was involved with crafting the legal defense of the Affordable Care Act in her role as solicitor general, before her appointment to the bench...

In an email dated Jan. 8, 2010, then-Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal sent an email to Senior Counsel Brian Hauck and Deputy Attorney General Thomas Perrelli that indicates Kagan played a key role in coming up with a legal defense... In an email on March 21, 2010, Katyal urged Kagan to attend a health-care litigation meeting on defending the law...

The documents also show that once Kagan was nominated to the Supreme Court, she and Katyal immediately switched course to distance her from discussions about the legislation.

On May 17, 2010, for example, Tracy Schmaler, a Department of Justice spokesperson wrote to Katyal, “Has Elena been involved in any of that to the extent SG office was consulted … ?”

“No, she has never been involved in any of it. I’ve run it for the office, and have never discussed the issues with her one bit,” was Katyal’s response. He then forwarded the correspondence to Kagan, saying “This is what I told Tracy about Health Care.”

Kagan’s response: “This needs to be coordinated. Tracy you should not say anything about this before talking to me.”

Other email chains between Kagan, White House lawyers and Vice President Joe Biden’s then-Chief of Staff Ronald Klain show a coordinated effort on how to respond to questions about the health-care law that may have arisen in the confirmation hearings...

If Kagan truly had not been involved with the defense of Obamacare, there would be no need for her to manage the message with a "coordinated effort".

Her efforts therefore make it apparent she was directly involved with the legislative process and, further, that she later attempted to cover it up.

Recusal is the only option for Justice Elena Kagan.

No comments:

Post a Comment