Democrats’ hopes were dashed Thursday after a report was released offering no evidence Brett Kavanaugh engaged in unauthorized leaks during his time in the independent counsel’s office probing the Clintons in the 1990s.

The report says there were unauthorized leaks by other members of the office, but that person, whose name is redacted, wasn’t Judge Kavanaugh, another federal judge says.

American Oversight, a liberal pressure group, had sued the National Archives to force public release of the report. The group had said if it learned Judge Kavanaugh had been the leaker, it could affect his nomination to the Supreme Court. Congressional Democrats filed a letter with the court agreeing with the push for release.

Now that it’s public the report, compiled under court order in 1999, doesn’t accuse the judge of any wrongdoing.

“This report refutes the latest false accusation by Senate Democrats and fully exonerates Judge Kavanaugh,” said Raj Shah, a spokesman for the White House.

Mr. Shah said forcing the release was the latest “desperate” move by Democrats looking for reasons to derail Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.

The report does provide an interesting historical look at the independent counsel’s probe that dogged the Clintons for years. The report was intended to figure out if someone in the office leaked secret grand jury proceedings, which would have violated critical rules of procedure.

Judge Kavanaugh was a staffer on the probe, led by Kenneth W. Starr.

Documents from his time in that job, and later work in the Bush White House, are at the center of Democrats’ inquiry into his past.

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