U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) issued the following statement in response to Judicial Watch announcing that they have formally lodged a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee after Booker has released 47 documents to the public categorized as “committee confidential” since last Thursday.

On Friday, Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn threatened an Ethics Committee investigation of Booker for releasing the arbitrarily-designated “committee confidential” documents to the public.

“Only 7 percent of Judge Kavanaugh’s White House records have been made available to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a break with bipartisan committee precedent, thousands of the documents we do have are arbitrarily designated as ‘committee confidential,’ shrouding them in secrecy and hiding them from public view. These documents don’t raise any kind of national security concerns—they have only been deemed ‘committee confidential’ because a Republican political operative decided that these documents are things the American public doesn’t deserve to see.

“This is a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and there is so much at stake, from the future of Roe v. Wade, to affordable healthcare, to the rights of workers over big corporations. The American public has a right to see these documents and this rushed, sham process is not the way the Senate should be handling a nomination to such an important position.

“I stand by my actions and will continue releasing so-called ‘committee confidential’ documents because it is important that the American people see this nominee’s entire record. No effort to intimidate me into silence will keep me from doing my moral and Constitutional duty.”

All Booker-released committee confidential documents are available at this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cc4u94lgyncygn6/AABPGJkIiq5ND7KJuX7kXUX9a?dl=0