SIX YEARS AFTER Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, a Democratic senator claims the FBI barely followed up on explosive sexual assault allegations that emerged during his nomination. A report released Tuesday lays out how White House officials kept a tight leash on the FBI’s inquiry, contrary to Trump’s claims at the time that the agency had “free rein” to investigate the claims.
“Far from getting to the bottom of the allegations against Kavanaugh,” reads the report (pdf), which was released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., after years of fighting both the Trump and Biden administrations for clarity, the FBI’s investigation “raised additional questions about the thoroughness of the FBI’s review and whether its scope had been purposely curtailed.”
Manchin and Senate Republicans pointed to the fact that the FBI found little to substantiate the accusations. But Whitehouse’s report says this was the inevitable outcome, since the Trump administration hemmed in the FBI to the point that agents were not authorized to pursue even obvious leads.
Ehh it was reported on, but we didn’t know it for sure, nor did we have specifics. There’s a difference between good reporting in a credible newspaper and an investigation led by a Senator on the Judiciary Committee. I think we’re just used to relying on good journalism since there has been a distinct lack of judicial oversight in Congress. But reports like this are based on totally different access and legal mechanisms that the press isn’t privy to (on the record, at least).
Relevant bits:
and
oh nice, were still having the executive branch investigate itself