Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) said Wednesday that the Trump administration's FBI conducted an “incomplete and incomplete” investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against 2018 Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. published a report accusing the government of
The White House Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts said: published his report The article, titled “Untrustworthy,” details the allegations against Kavanaugh and the “grossly inadequate” lack of procedures in the FBI's investigation into those allegations.
“The Trump administration and the FBI assured the Senate that the FBI's investigation was being conducted 'by the book,' when in fact there was no 'book' at all,” the White House said in a report. I didn't make that clear.”
Former President Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in July 2018. Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford has come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh dating back to the 1980s, and two other women have also come forward with their own stories.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a special meeting to hear testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford. President Trump then ordered the FBI to supplement the initial background investigation into Kavanaugh by investigating new allegations.
In the report, which the White House launched in 2021, he argued that the Senate's reliance on the FBI investigation to confirm Kavanaugh to court was “misguided.” An FBI investigation found no evidence to support the suspicions.
“However, the supplemental background investigation was flawed and incomplete because the FBI did not pursue numerous leads that could have yielded corroborating or relevant information,” the report states. .
The White House also claimed that Trump had “free reign” over the investigation, when in reality Trump had “complete control over the investigation” and that the FBI was unable to interview relevant witnesses or track information. He said he had prevented it. The FBI tip was not used in the investigation due to instructions from the White House. The information was forwarded to the White House without investigation, the senator said.
“If anything, the White House may have used the tip-off to keep FBI agents away from derogatory or damaging information,” the report claims.
The Rhode Island senator said the FBI has no written procedures for how to conduct supplemental background checks. Background checks are standard for all other Supreme Court nominees, but the White House argued it was inappropriate that the records did not cover “serious, high-profile charges” against Kavanaugh.
“This practice not only allowed the Trump administration to curtail FBI agents' ability to properly investigate these allegations, but also undermined the thoroughness of the investigation through a lack of transparency,” the White House said in the report. He misled the Senate and the public about the matter.”
The White House said that while the flaws found in the report could only be related to an extreme nomination process like Kavanaugh's, the Senate, White House and FBI are “working together to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.” We need to correct the deficiencies.”
In a statement to The Hill, the FBI said it responds to requests from the White House Counsel's Office and other government agencies to conduct background checks on specific candidates.
“In these investigations, the FBI follows long-established processes and the scope of the investigation is limited to what is requested,” the FBI statement said. “We have consistently followed that process for decades, and we did so with the Kavanaugh investigation.”
The FBI said it does not have independent authority to expand the scope of the investigation, as Kavanaugh did, and that its procedures differ from criminal investigations, which give the FBI “broad authority” to make investigative decisions.
The Hill has reached out to Trump and Kavanaugh for comment.
