On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Senate Judiciary Committee member Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) stated she did not request that the committee confidential document she released be cleared.

Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked, “Democrats on your committee, the Judiciary Committee, including yourself, released documents this morning that were said to be committee confidential, … but the Chairman, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says those documents had already been cleared, were released earlier overnight. So, why did you imply those documents were being suppressed?”

Hirono answered, “Well, they were suppressed. And in fact, this was a perfect example of, after the fact, trying to cover their, as we say in Hawaii, okoles. You know, the process, as laid out by the chairman was that we had to clear documents that we intended to use. I did not request that this document be cleared. And then they’re trying to say that they had actually cleared it this morning, or they have proposed different times that they so-called cleared my document. I referred to the document last night. The fact of the matter is that they don’t want to be confronted with the idea of having to expel some of us. Because they cannot justify why these documents should have been confidential in the first place.”

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