Durbin released two pages of emails from 2002 stamped "committee confidential" — meaning they had not been cleared for public release — that detail Kavanaugh's conversation with two other White House officials on the nomination of William "Jim" Haynes to fill a judicial vacancy.

ADVERTISEMENT “It is clear now that not only did Judge Kavanaugh mislead me when it came to his involvement in the Bush Administration’s detention and interrogation policies, but also regarding his role in the controversial Haynes nomination,” Durbin said on Tuesday.

The emails released by Durbin show Kavanaugh, then an employee in the George W. Bush White House, discussing a potential Haynes nomination with two of his colleagues in a brief email thread.

After the two colleagues exchanged emails discussing Haynes, Kavanaugh replies saying that they need to "resolve" the package of judicial nominations, potentially including Haynes, "quickly."

"What is the basis for saying he would be an across-the-board judicial conservative? I have no reason to think that one way or another outside of defense/military area — and I know others have questions about that," Kavanaugh added.

Haynes, as general counsel to the Pentagon, was involved in the Bush administration detention policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

When one of Kavanaugh's White House counsel colleagues asked who had questions about Haynes, Kavanaugh replied: "Call me."

Durbin on Tuesday seized on the emails as evidence that Kavanaugh misled senators when he testified during his 2006 confirmation hearing to sit on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Democratic lawmaker had asked Kavanaugh at the time about his involvement in Haynes's nomination, including if he knew about Haynes's work on Bush's detention and interrogation policies.

Kavanaugh told senators that while he knew Haynes, "it was not one of the nominations that I handled."

Durbin on Tuesday called the emails the latest example of a "theme" around Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, confirmation hearings for which took place last week.

“He says one thing under oath, and then the documents tell a different story. It is no wonder the White House and Senate Republicans are rushing through this nomination and hiding much of Judge Kavanaugh’s record — the questions about this nominee’s credibility are growing every day," Durbin said.

Kavanaugh previously said that he was not involved in the nomination proceedings, but could not rule out last week that he might have questioned Pryor, who is controversial because of his stance against Roe v. Wade.

Asked by Leahy if he interviewed Pryor, Kavanaugh said he didn’t “believe so, but added it’s possible.

“I don’t believe so but if I did it would have been part of the general process,” he said. “It’s possible; we interviewed hundreds of nominees."

Asked later by Grassley, who argued that Democrats were trying to misrepresent the email, Kavanaugh added that he was not the “primary person” on Pryor.

Updated: 7 p.m.