All hail the intrepid, leave-no-stone-unturned investigative reporters of the NY Times and their colleagues in the AP, busy night and day protecting the republic:

The New York Times and Associated Press both filed requests under the Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) seeking e-mails that Ashley Kavanaugh, the wife of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, sent as town manager of The Village of Chevy Chase Section 5, according to documents obtained by America Rising Squared (AR2) and shared exclusively with the NTK Network.

The two news organizations took different approaches to obtain the e-mails. According to the documents, the AP made a sweeping request for “all emails sent or received” by Ashley Kavanaugh’s Village of Chevy Chase email address.

By contrast, The New York Times is currently requesting that The Village of Chevy Chase Section 5 hand over “any emails to or from Ms. Kavanaugh that contain any of the keywords or terms listed below.”

And what a list it is, including words like “liberal,” “abortion,” “gay,” and “federalist,” while also explicitly asking for e-mails containing the names of certain individuals.

As Ed Morrissey of Hot Air points out, it’s not as though the Times or the AP has suddenly taken an intense interest in the workings of the local government of Chevy Chase, Maryland, fascinating though that task might be. They wish to troll through the emails of Kavanaugh’s wife for the sole purpose of finding a passage they could use to smear her as a racist, a sexist, a something-ist that will reflect poorly on her husband, who is up for confirmation to the Supreme Court. Even if they found such an item (seek and ye shall find—especially if you define the “ists” broadly enough) it would merely be guilt by association. But hey, what not give it a go?

[NOTE: I’m unfamiliar with the news outlets initially reporting on this: NTK network via America Rising Squared. So I’m taking it with a small grain of salt. Take a look at the original article at NTK and judge for yourself.]

[NOTE: This post was originally on my older blog and had comments, but unfortunately the comments didn’t transfer over here.]