In Rocky Hearing, Rex Tillerson Tries to Separate From Trump

The former chief executive of Exxon Mobil found himself on the defensive over his reluctance to declare that some dictators were violators of human rights. On climate change, Mr. Tillerson said he did not view it as the imminent national security threat that some others did. On Iran he tried to strike a middle ground between Republicans who said the deal should be scrapped – including Vice President-elect Mike Pence – and those who simply call for tougher enforcement of its provisions.

Judge orders EPA nominee Scott Pruitt to turn over emails

An Oklahoma County District Court judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the EPA to turn over thousands of communications to a watchdog group. The order is the latest turn in a lawsuit against Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt brought by the Center for Media and Democracy earlier this month. CMD charges Pruitt violated the Oklahoma Open Records Act for declining to make public official documents the group has requested since 2015.

'No accident' Brett Kavanaugh's female law clerks 'looked like models', Yale professor told students

A top professor at Yale Law School who strongly endorsed supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
as a “mentor to women” privately told a group of law students last year
that it was “not an accident” that Kavanaugh’s female law clerks all
“looked like models” and would provide advice to students about their
physical appearance if they wanted to work for him, the Guardian has
learned.

Attorney Sent Letter to Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein Claiming Federal Court Employees Willing to Speak About Brett Kavanaugh

The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee were both approached in July
by an attorney claiming to have information relevant to the
confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The attorney
claimed in his letter that multiple employees of the federal judiciary
would be willing to speak to investigators, but received no reply to
multiple attempts to make contact, he told The Intercept.

California professor Christine Blasey Ford, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about sexual assault allegation

Earlier this summer, Christine Blasey Ford wrote a confidential letter
to a senior Democratic lawmaker alleging that Supreme Court nominee
Brett M. Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago,
when they were high school students in suburban Maryland. Since
Wednesday, she has watched as that bare-bones version of her story
became public without her name or her consent, drawing a blanket denial
from Kavanaugh and roiling a nomination that just days ago seemed all but certain to succeed.