Bob Woodward was prepared to unmask Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings as an anonymous source for a book the Watergate icon wrote more than 20 years ago but was talked out of it by the Washington Post’s top editor, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Woodward was reportedly set to expose Kavanaugh as an anonymous source for his 1999 book “Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate.” At the time the book was being written, Kavanaugh served as a lawyer on independent counsel Ken Starr’s team in its investigation of President Clinton.
The revelation would have publicly contradicted what Kavanaugh said in a letter to the Post in 1999, the Times noted.
Woodward’s unmasking of Kavanaugh was set to be published in October 2018, according to the Times, which added that Post executive editor Martin Baron urged Woodward to not burn his source because it would be “bad for Bob” and the newspaper itself if Kavanaugh were exposed.
More at The Hill and The Guardian