The report from a member of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., criticized the FBI for not investigating more fully the claims of Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct described by two women. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
Whitehouse’s report said the FBI didn’t investigate thousands of tips it received, but passed them along to the White House.
“The supplemental background investigation was flawed and incomplete, as the FBI did not follow up on numerous leads that could have produced potentially corroborating or otherwise relevant information,” the report said.
While “President Trump publicly claimed the FBI had ‘free rein’ to take any investigative steps it deemed necessary, the Trump White House exercised total control over the scope of the investigation, preventing the FBI from interviewing relevant witnesses and following up on tips,"the report concluded.
President Donald Trump speaks next to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as they participate in a ceremonial public swearing-in in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Oct. 8, 2018. JIM BOURG, REUTERS
Whitehouse alleges the Trump administration "kneecap(ped)" FBI investigators and "misled the Senate."
Kavanaugh didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement the "ridiculous story" about the report was a way to "delegitimize the Supreme Court and pave the way for Kamala Harris to pack the Court with Radical-Left Judges."
"Everyone knows Brett Kavanaugh was unfairly slandered and smeared with lies in a Democrat-led hoax to derail his appointment to the Court that ultimately failed," Leavitt said.
The FBI said in a statement it responds to requests from the White House counsel’s office to conduct background investigations of candidates for government posts. In contrast to its criminal investigations, the FBI doesn’t have the authority to expand the scope of its background investigations beyond what the White House requests.
"In these investigations, the FBI follows a long-standing, established process through which the scope of the investigation is limited to what is requested,” the agency said. “We have consistently followed that process for decades and did so for the Kavanaugh inquiry.”
Christine Blasey Ford closes her eyes as she is sworn in before testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Sept. 27, 2018. Jim Bourg, REUTERS
The report revisits one of the most contentious Supreme Court confirmations in a generation that nearly scuttled Kavanaugh’s nomination. Kavanaugh was confirmed on a nearly party-line vote of 50-48 , with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia the only Democrat joining Republicans supporting him. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted present.
Trump nominated Kavanaugh, who had served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for 12 years, to the Supreme Court on July 9, 2018. Allegations of sexual misconduct began to surface two months later despite not being uncovered in the FBI’s background investigation.
Trump denied at the time that he limited the FBI investigation and that "I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion."
Christine Blasey Ford , a professor at Palo Alto University, told the Senate in a letter that Kavanaugh “physically and sexually assaulted her” during high school by locking her in a bedroom, climbing on top of her and attempting to remove her clothes. She later testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ford’s lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said the report confirmed the FBI investigation was a “sham” that gave cover to Republicans to confirm Kavanaugh.
“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 lawyers said in a statement. “As a result of this effort, anyone who came forward with concerns to the FBI was re-directed, without investigation, to the Trump White House which intentionally buried the information.”
A classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University, Deborah Ramirez, told the New Yorker that Kavanaugh “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party.”
Kavanaugh publicly denied both allegations.
Whitehouse, a former U.S. attorney and state attorney general, said he continued to review the FBI’s performance because of serious questions during the confirmation process for a lifetime appointment to the court.
“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 post on X . “Senators, and the American people, deserve real answers – not manufactured misdirection – when such serious questions about a lifetime nominee emerge late in the confirmation process.”
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