Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s affirmation hearings in the autumn of 2018 had been extremely controversial for a wide range of causes, together with the scope of the FBI background verify that was imagined to be a part of the method.
Just two days earlier than the Senate’s affirmation vote, with the FBI evaluate ostensibly full, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said it seemed to be “a very thorough investigation.”
That was precisely six years in the past this week. Collins’ evaluation appeared badly flawed on the time, nevertheless it appears to be like significantly worse now. As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim defined:
The Trump administration didn't permit the FBI to conduct a full-scale investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to Brett Kavanaugh that threatened his Supreme Court affirmation, in line with a new report, disputing then-President Donald Trump’s public claims on the time.
In 2018, on the top of the controversy, the late-Sen. Dianne Feinstein — on the time, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s rating member — said that the FBI’s report on Cavanaugh “looks to be a product of an incomplete investigation that was limited perhaps by the White House.”
Six years later, it seems the California Democrat was on to one thing.
Following a prolonged evaluate, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island launched his findings, alleging that the Trump administration “exercised total control over the scope of the investigation” and prevented the FBI from pursuing leads. The end result was a “flawed and incomplete” investigation right into a Supreme Court nominee, which was “unworthy of reliance by the Senate.”
As a associated Washington Post report famous, as Kavanaugh confronted sexual misconduct allegations, Trump mentioned that the FBI would have “free rein” to scrutinize the claims. Trump mentioned the FBI was “talking to everybody,” including by means of social media, “I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”
That, after all, was what the then-president needed to say in public. In non-public, in line with Whitehouse’s findings, the Trump administration not solely “kneecap[ed] FBI investigators’ ability to adequately investigate those allegations, but the lack of transparency misled the Senate and the public about the investigation’s thoroughness.”
Kavanaugh and the FBI declined to remark, and the Trump marketing campaign called the findings an “attempt to delegitimize the Supreme Court” (which, by the way, the previous president has tried to delegitimize.)
Speaking of the GOP candidate, the 12 months after Trump left the White House, he mentioned, in reference to Kavanaugh, “I saved his life. He wouldn’t even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him. … I saved his life, and I saved his career.”
It was a curious quote, which is now seen in a new mild.
This submit updates our associated earlier protection.
