In September 2018, as allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh threatened his confirmation to the Supreme Court, President Trump vowed that the FBI would have “free rein” to vet the claims. Trump said the FBI was “talking to everybody” and added on social media: “I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.” The president’s comments came as a surprise to the FBI, says a new report from Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) based on previously undisclosed correspondence between the agency and the White House. FBI officials, who were asked to conduct a limited inquiry in a week, requested “additional guidance” from the White House, citing the public remarks by Trump and other officials describing a freewheeling investigation. The White House never authorized the agency to robe the sexual misconduct allegations, which Kavanaugh denied, reports the Washington Post.
The report provides additional evidence of the tight control exercised by the White House over the FBI investigation despite Trump’s claims to the contrary. The report found that messages on Kavanaugh to the FBI tip line were forwarded to the White House and never probed, and that the FBI had no written protocols for the supplemental background investigation ordered by the White House. It says the FBI was instructed by the White House to talk to 10 potential witnesses and was not given the leeway to pursue corroborating evidence, the absence of which was cited by senators as they narrowly voted to confirm Kavanaugh. Trump ordered the additional inquiry after testimony by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh had groped her and tried to take off her clothes more than three decades earlier at a high school party. Another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, had said that Kavanaugh had shoved his penis into her face during a dorm party when they were at Yale University in the early 1980s. Whitehouse said his review took six years because of resistance from both the Trump and Biden administrations to providing correspondence with the FBI, access to FBI officials and answers to questions about the investigation.
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