FBI facing allegations that its 2018 background check of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was 'fake' and Dem senator demands newly-confirmed AG Merrick Garland facilitate 'proper oversight' by the Senate
Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is demanding the FBI account for the bureau's background investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that Whitehouse ridiculed as 'fake.'
Whitehouse revisited the charged 2018 issue in a letter to new Attorney General Merrick Garland, where he blasted the FBI for failing to follow its own guidelines for how to conduct probes and sort through tips.
With accusations flying against Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings – including by Christine Blasey Ford who accused him of assaulting her at a party when they were both in high school decades ago – senators delayed a vote for a supplemental investigation.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse called the FBI's 2018 background probe into now-Supreme Justice Brett Kavanaugh 'fake' as he demanded information about it
What happened next did not please Whitehouse. It 'appears to have been a politically-constrained and perhaps fake FBI investigation into alleged misconduct by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh,' he wrote.
He noted that Kavanaugh disputed her testimony – he angrily denied it in his confirmation hearing – so there were 'questions of fact' to resolve.
The FBI never interviewed Blasey Ford, nor did it interview Kavanaugh.
'Max Stier, the widely respected president of the Partnership for Public Service, and a college classmate of Mr. Kavanaugh, offered specific corroborating evidence, but the FBI refused to interview Mr. Stier,' he wrote.
As people brought forward information, 'the FBI had assigned no person to accept or gather evidence,' Whitehouse wrote.
'In addition to showing some cursory efforts to corroborate Dr. Ford’s hearing testimony, our brief review showed that a stack of information had indeed flowed in through the “tip line,” he added.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse blasted the FBI's handling of the Kavanaugh probe in a letter to the new attorney general
Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a Maryland party decades ago
Whitehouse grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray over the bureau's failure to respond to questions
Whitehouse wrote new attorney Merrick Garland about the FBI probe and other oversight matters
'It did not appear, however, that any review had been undertaken of any of the information that flowed through this tip line. We could get no explanation of the tip line procedures,' he continued.
The background investigation faced not only time constraints, but those relating to its scope, the Washington Post reported in 2018. The probe appears to have focused on Blasey Ford's allegations, but not claims about Kavanaugh's alleged drinking and whether he was truthful about it.
The bureau interviewed another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who claims Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they both attended Yale. But she said there were not indications the FBI interviewed the 20 names she provided who might have information about the alleged incident.
Whitehouse concluded: 'If standard procedures were violated, and the Bureau conducted a fake investigation rather than a sincere, thorough and professional one, that in my view merits congressional oversight to understand how, why, and at whose behest and with whose knowledge or connivance, this was done.'
Whitehouse tore into FBI Director Chris Wray during his recent testimony in the Senate, demanding the bureau be responsive to questions and requests for information.
'You going to do any better with the questions that we're getting right now?” he pressed Wray at the Judiciary Committee. “You've been asked questions for the record. Are they going to go into the same, whatever it was, hole where questions for the record go to die at the FBI?”
He told CBS the bureau's conduct was 'not tolerable.'
Whitehouse wrote that some witnesses who wanted to share information weren't able to do so. 'This was unique behavior in my experience, as the Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,' he wrote.
He also pressed Garland on other regulatory matters, from anti-trust issues to fossil fuels and IRS enforcement of the 'explosion' of political activity by nonprofits after the Citizens United ruling.
Garland vowed during his own confirmation, which went through on a bipartisan vote, not to let politics interfere with decision-making at the agency. He has his own experience with the Senate's confirmation process. He never got a hearing from the Republican-controlled Senate after President Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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