Way back in 2018, when the country was under orange rule, the FBI was tasked with doing a background check on Brett Kavanaugh, who had been nominated for the Supreme Court. If you unlock that part of your brain that swore it would never go back there, remember that there were claims of sexual assault against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford?
Well, one Democrat senator is alleging that the FBI investigation into Kavanaugh was bullshit.
According to the Guardian, Sheldon Whitehouse, “a former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate ‘proper oversight’ by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.”
The FBI was supposed to investigate claims made by Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. The FBI was later accused by several Democratic senators of performing a bullshit background check as the agency didn’t even bother to interview Blasey Ford of Kavanaugh about the claims.
From the Guardian:
Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence.
“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,” Whitehouse said.
He added that, once the FBI decided to create a “tip line”, senators were not given any information on how or whether new allegations were processed and evaluated. While senators’ brief review of the allegations gathered by the tip line showed a “stack” of information had come in, there was no further explanation on the steps that had been taken to review the information, Whitehouse said.
“This ‘tip line’ appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster,” he said.
He also criticized FBI director Chris Wray, who Joe Biden has elected to remain in place, for not answering questions about the investigation.
The FBI and the Department of Justice didn’t respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Who knows if Garland will reopen an investigation into Kavanaugh, who is now chilling on the Supreme Court, which is a lifetime appointment.
Whitehouse just wants to know “how, why, and at whose behest” the FBI conducted a “fake” investigation and “if standard procedures were violated, including standards for following allegations gathered through FBI ‘tip lines,’” the Guardian reports.