Kavanaugh Investigation Was Intentionally Derailed - Part 1
New information has now proven what many suspected all along: claims about Brett Kavanaugh's inappropriate past behaviors were sent to the White House in order to thwart the FBI investigation.
A new report released by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) yesterday has confirmed the truth about Brett Kavanaugh’s intentionally botched background investigation, seemingly conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The new dossier “detail[s] disturbing shortcomings in the supplemental background investigation conducted after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during the 2018 confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh [and] is the culmination of a six-year-long investigation hindered by…the Trump Administration.”
Senator Whitehouse released the following statement about the publication of this information and the key findings in the report:
“In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford (see video below) that I’d keep digging, for however long it took, and not give up or move on from the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh. A full, proper investigation is the bare minimum that victims who come forward – like Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez – deserve. This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation.
The lack of FBI investigative standards helped the Trump White House thwart meaningful investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, denying Senators information needed to fulfill their constitutional duties. The FBI must create real protocols so Senators and the American people get real answers – not manufactured misdirection – the next time serious questions about a nominee emerge late in the confirmation process.”
Brett Kavanaugh, who had served as a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was nominated to the United States Supreme Court in July of 2018. Soon after the Senate Judiciary Committee began regular hearings on his nomination in early September of that year, accusations by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school came to light.
The Judiciary Committee held an additional hearing on September 27, 2018, where Dr. Ford and Brett Kavanaugh both testified. After this hearing, the Judiciary Committee asked for an independent supplemental background investigation by the FBI to determine the veracity of the new allegations against Kavanaugh. The supplemental background investigation raised immediate concerns from Democratic senators that the FBI’s review had been curtailed by the Trump White House; a theory which has now been formally proven by Senator Whitehouse in the investigation post mortem.
The four key findings of Whitehouse’s years-long investigation:
The supplemental background investigation was completely controlled by the Trump White House and was never independent. According to the report, the FBI was never given “free rein” to conduct a thorough complete investigation, and all of the statements made by former President Trump, that bolstered his administration’s diligence of investigation were false.
The Trump White House and the FBI assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation was conducted “by the book” according to standard FBI procedures. This pledge was intentionally false and misleading. The Trump Administration refused to disclose the protocol being used for directing the FBI in their investigation, which required step-by-step instructions from the White House. The protocol invoked, where the Trump White House had complete control over the claims made against Brett Kavanaugh, was “uniquely inappropriate” for investigating such a serious, high-profile role that Kavanaugh undertook.
The investigation was directed by the Trump White House to pursue only first-hand information and not corroborating evidence, so that Senate Republicans could later cite the absence of corroborating evidence to justify their votes to confirm Justice Kavanaugh.
Ultimately, the FBI’s public “tip line” investigation was fake. No tip that was given or claim that was made was ever investigated. Kavanaugh-related tips were instead delivered directly to the Trump White House where they were buried and withheld from the FBI. The report also gives credence to the assumption that the Trump White House used the tip line and the information gleaned from it to intentionally steer the FBI away from any discrediting or derogatory evidence against Kavanaugh during the investigation.
Senator Whitehouse and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have spent nearly six years conducting a follow-up investigation into the failures of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the White House, via written correspondence, live and written questioning during committee hearings, and meetings with executive branch officials.
Senator Whitehouse has made the following statement involving this years-long undertaking:
“The senators’ inquiries were blocked by obstinate executive noncompliance. During the Trump Administration, the executive branch provided no information to this investigation, while providing a fast lane for Crossfire Hurricane information to Senate Republicans. Even when cooperation improved during the Biden Administration, senators struggled to secure complete and timely answers to oversight requests.
These major failings in the FBI’s supplemental background investigation made it unworthy of reliance by the Senate for advice and consent. This must never reoccur, so the report recommends that better standards be established for FBI supplemental background investigations—particularly for situations where major misconduct allegations come to light after an initial background investigation is complete.”
While the conclusion that this type of institutional failure should never happen again is fairly obvious, many will be asking what ramifications this will have on Brett Kavanaugh and his position as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Later this week, I will be publishing parts 2 and 3 of this series to discuss the conservative push to get Kavanaugh confirmed, as well as the legal process and historical precedent for impeaching a Supreme Court Justice. What is the viability of attempting to remove Kavanaugh, you ask? We will be covering that soon.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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The Democratic members of the Senate "knew" this, as did we, because it was obvious. I'm so glad that Senator Whitehouse pursued this. We all deserve better, Christine Blasey Ford, in particular. Watching her testify was excruciating; imagine what it was like for her to come forward, then have nothing come of it (as with Anita Hill). We can only imagine what will happen should Trump win the election. We can't let that happen.
This is not at all surprising. Before he got the FBI gig Christopher Wray was the “independent” counsel hired by Chris Christie to exonerate Chris Christie for BridgeGate. Another corrupt Republican covering up Republican crimes.