A lawyer overseeing the release of some of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's past work fired back at Sen. Cory Booker Cory Anthony BookerBipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death DHS opens probe into allegations at Georgia ICE facility Democratic lawmakers call for an investigation into allegations of medical neglect at Georgia ICE facility MORE (D-N.J.) on Thursday for "histrionics" over the documents.

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"We were surprised to learn about Senator Booker's histrionics this morning because we had already told him he could use the documents publicly," said Bill Burck, the George W. Bush lawyer who led the review of Kavanaugh's records related to his time as a White House lawyer, in a statement to The Washington Post.

Booker on Thursday released emails from Kavanaugh's time as a White House counsel that had been marked "committee confidential," meaning they were not meant for public release. He announced the move in a speech during day three of Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearings in which he said he would be "knowingly violating the rules."

But Burck's office said they had already cleared the documents for public release.

"We cleared the documents last night shortly after Senator Booker's staff asked us to," said Burck. "In fact, we said yes to every request made by the Senate Democrats to make documents public."

A GOP Judiciary spokesman on Thursday confirmed the emails had already been cleared for release before Booker's announcement.

The spokesman said Booker, alongside several other senators, last night put in the request to use the documents during the Kavanaugh hearings.

"[Sen. Chuck] Grassley (R-Iowa), leading the most transparent Supreme Court confirmation process in history - went to bat for them, and worked with the Justice Department and office of former President Bush to waive the relevant statutory restrictions on those documents," the spokesman said. "Those restrictions were waived before 4:00 AM this morning and made ready for release."

According to the spokesman, the senators were notified that the restrictions had been lifted before the hearing began this morning.

Sen. John Cornyn John CornynThe Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting Liberal super PAC launches ads targeting vulnerable GOP senators over SCOTUS fight Senate GOP faces pivotal moment on pick for Supreme Court MORE (R-Texas) responded to Booker's announcement during the hearing by listing the potential consequences for his actions and, in a fiery back and forth, Booker told him to "bring it."

"Bring the charges," Booker, a potential 2020 contender, said.

Cornyn later on Thursday said he was not aware at the time that the emails had been marked non-confidential.

"The irony is after Sen. Booker basically said he was going to release the document anyway, I learned from Sen. [Mike] Lee (R-Utah) that it had already been worked out at that this would be released to the public," Cornyn said on Fox News on Thursday afternoon. "So all of this drama this morning apparently was for nothing and it's unfortunate."