A new report claims that the FBI’s background check on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 wasn’t as thorough as the public was led to believe. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse released these findings after a long study of the situation.
Back in 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to become a Supreme Court Justice. During the process of confirming Kavanaugh for this role, some serious accusations were made against him. Two women, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, said that Kavanaugh had behaved inappropriately towards them many years ago when they were younger.
According to The New Yorker and USA Today, Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Brett Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her at a high school party more than three decades ago. The other woman, Ramirez, who identified herself as a former classmate of Kavanaugh at Yale University, accused him of sexual assault during a dormitory party, alleging that he had exposed himself to her.
The ex-U.S. circuit judge has strongly denied these claims. Donald Trump, who was President at the time, told the FBI that they had “free rein” to investigate these accusations in whatever manner they thought was best. Trump told the public, “I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”
However, Senator Whitehouse’s new report tells a different story. It says that behind the scenes, Trump’s administration was actually controlling what the FBI could and couldn’t do in their investigation. The report claims that the White House stopped the FBI from talking to some important people and following up on useful information.
“The supplemental background investigation was flawed and incomplete,” the report states. It goes on to say that the FBI didn’t follow up on many tips that could have provided important information. Senator Whitehouse, who used to be a U.S. attorney, believes that the limited investigation prevented senators from getting all the information they needed to make a good decision about Kavanaugh.
“The Trump White House thwarted proper FBI investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, denying Senators information needed to fulfill our constitutional duties,” Whitehouse said in a public statement.
The report also mentions that the FBI received thousands of tips about Kavanaugh, but instead of looking into them, they just passed them along to the White House. This is unusual because usually, the FBI would investigate such tips themselves. Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers have reacted strongly to this news. They said,
“The Congressional report published today confirms what we long suspected: the FBI supplemental investigation of then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh was, in fact, a sham effort directed by the Trump White House to silence brave victims and other witnesses who came forward and to hide the truth.”
The FBI has responded to these claims. They said that in background checks like this one, they can only do what the White House asks them to do. They don’t have the power to decide on their own to expand the investigation. “We have consistently followed that process for decades and did so for the Kavanaugh inquiry,” the FBI stated.
Despite all these issues, Brett Kavanaugh was later confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. The vote was very close: 50 senators voted for him, and 48 voted against him.
