revealed during the brett kavanaugh hearings, but happily this was eclipsed -- not happily, but the issues surrounding his distinguished service ended up in a counsel's office and got eclipsed by other questions. during the main confirmation process. but i was insistent that we get the referral out as promptly as possible after the president's testimony of august 1994, and we did get it out right after labor day, september 9, 1994. and the very reason was we had the midterm elections coming up. so the justice department policy is, in fact, to be mindful of the democratic process and to time, if at all possible -- the office of the international justice may eclipse this, but you try your best not to interfere with the democratic process. >> that certainly is true. i've always had difficulty with this. it's clearly a justice department policy, so it doesn't matter if an individual prosecutor has a problem with it. but it always just seemed to me that not doing something that should be done and that is ripe to be done is equally as bad as doing something rash in the period of time in the run-up to the election that -- and have an