Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's role as 'president's protector' remains shrouded in secrecy

WASHINGTON – For three eventful years of George W. Bush's presidency – involving wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, battles over abortion and immigration, and two Supreme Court vacancies – Brett Kavanaugh held one of the most important jobs in the White House.

But as the Senate considers Kavanaugh's qualifications for the Supreme Court, his work as staff secretary – described by others who have held the job as the president's inbox and outbox – remains a black hole.

Republicans are releasing hundreds of thousands of pages from Kavanaugh's years as a federal appeals court judge, associate White House counsel and aide to independent counsel Ken Starr. Meanwhile, a treasure trove of documents that could reach 3 million pages from 2003-06 is being withheld. Republicans say they're irrelevant; Democrats say they're irreplaceable.

While the partisan battle continues to unfold, one thing is clear: Former White House staff secretaries don't think they were mere traffic cops outside the Oval Office.

"It makes me laugh that they are talking about this job as just a paper-pusher," says Lisa Brown, President Barack Obama's first staff secretary. "There’s some truth on both sides of this, but it belies the critical importance of the role to say that the staff secretary documents should be off-limits."

Kavanaugh himself told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004 that his job was to "give recommendations and advice" while ultimately carrying out directions from superiors. In a speech nine years later, he said his White House experience "helped make me a better student of the administrative process, a better interpreter of statutes.”

Not everyone agrees that to judge Kavanaugh fit for the high court, the Senate must see every speech, schedule and congressional resolution that crossed his desk. James Cicconi, President George H.W. Bush's first staff secretary, says that would be a "fishing expedition."

“Literally everything the president sees goes through the staff secretary's office,” Cicconi says. “The essence of it is to be an honest broker. You’re the president’s protector, in many ways, against bad information or incomplete information.”

For now at least, the document dispute isn't about private information to which Kavanaugh was privy or suspected "smoking guns" on such topics as torturing detainees. At its root is the sheer volume of information – several million pages, according to the National Archives and Records Administration. A thorough examination would extend well past the November election, risking Republicans' Senate majority and Kavanaugh's confirmation.

Some Democrats and their allies have suggested that a compromise could call for releasing anything Kavanaugh wrote, rather than the mundane documents and emails that passed through his hands, Blackberry, cellphone and computer.

“There’s plenty of times when the way in which you, as the staff secretary, see an issue or perceive an issue is going to matter," says Todd Stern, who served three years as staff secretary to President Bill Clinton. "I don't think this is a close call."

Fifteen-hour days
White House staff secretary Lisa Brown helps President Barack Obama as he signs a series of executive orders on the third day of his presidency in 2009.
White House staff secretary Lisa Brown helps President Barack Obama as he signs a series of executive orders on the third day of his presidency in 2009. (Photo: AP)
The office of the White House staff secretary was established in 1953, at the start of the Eisenhower administration. But the function dates back nearly a century further to Abraham Lincoln's presidency, when John Nicolay and John Hay filled a similar role.

By the time Kavanaugh inherited it from Harriet Miers, whose own Supreme Court nomination in 2005 was withdrawn amid bipartisan opposition, it had become an all-consuming job. Kavanaugh later recalled starting his day with a 6:15 a.m. "fire drill" and checking out after 9:30 p.m.

Those three years were chock-full of controversial issues. Bush signed a partial-birth abortion ban, sought a same-sex marriage ban, expanded Medicare, opposed euthanasia and stem cell research, and failed to partially privatize Social Security or create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Throughout those years, the administration defended its "enhanced interrogation" of detainees in the war against terrorism; Kavanaugh denied any involvement in the debate over torture during his confirmation hearings for the appeals court. Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. A week later, Chief Justice William Rehnquist died.

"I sat on my couch at home, just thinking about the enormity of all of that," he said in 2013.

And yet, Kavanaugh told the White House Transition Project in 2008 that his job was to be Bush's honest broker – a description shared by other staff secretaries.

"It was important that I maintain strict neutrality and impartiality in that role, so that the president and his policy staff would have confidence that their concern would be presented to the president fairly," he said.

Staff secretaries do not need a law degree, but most of them have been lawyers. Brent McIntosh, who served as deputy staff secretary at the end of the Bush administration, told the White House Transition Project that materials going to the president were put "through the lawyer's lens."

“The job is one about judgment and temperament, more than anything else," says Raj De, who succeeded Brown as Obama's staff secretary. “Virtually every staff secretary has been a lawyer, and I think that is because the job draws on some of the same skill sets that lawyers have to bring to bear every day.”

When Kavanaugh was confirmed to the federal appeals court in 2006, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said “his background as staff secretary may prove to be particularly good judicial training.”

'Certainly pertinent'
President Bill Clinton laughs as he listens to newly appointed White House Chief of Staff John Podesta on Oct. 20, 1998. Podesta previously served as deputy chief of staff and White House staff secretary.
President Bill Clinton laughs as he listens to newly appointed White House Chief of Staff John Podesta on Oct. 20, 1998. Podesta previously served as deputy chief of staff and White House staff secretary. (Photo: AFP)

Some former staff secretaries acknowledge that the primary role is to be an honest broker, rather than seek to influence the president in one direction or another.

“I can think of only one document where I weighed in with an opinion,” Cicconi recalls, noting it had to do with competing versions of statements on civil rights legislation the first President Bush was considering. "Rarely did I write a memo."

But John Podesta, Clinton's first staff secretary who rose to become White House chief of staff, penned hundreds of cover memos to go atop documents awaiting Clinton's decision. On some issues, he says, "I felt like I was an equal to the other people commenting."

"It just wasn’t uncommon to express my opinion,” he says.

Stern, who followed Podesta, notes the staff secretary's job is not to influence the president but to ensure he gets a balanced diet of viewpoints from all the relevant people on staff. As the "goalie," that often means seeking additional input.

"You’re certainly not trying to put your thumb on the scale between options," he says. "The point is to say, 'Here’s the issues, here’s the options, here’s what people think.'"

Brown, who met over lunch with Kavanaugh before starting the job under Obama, says the most important documents from his years as staff secretary would be those that he wrote, rather than merely delivered.

"His memos, opinions, advice, edits, comments are certainly pertinent," she says.