If you thought the investigation into the attempted rape allegations against Brett Kavanaugh were rushed, you don’t know the half of it. Or the THOUSANDTH of it, we guess.
In case you blocked it out, Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was marred by credible allegations by a college professor named Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who said he had sexually assaulted her in high school. In harrowing testimony, she described how he drunkenly held her down on a bed and pulled her clothes off — and would have done worse had she not broken free and escaped.
The confirmation was pushed through despite a hearing in which Donald Trump‘s pick comported himself with all the dignity of a guy getting busted on Cops, infamously yelling, “I LIKE BEER!” at the members of Congress asking him questions — as though a person’s temperament didn’t matter for getting a seat on the highest court in the land.
Related: That Time Trump Attacked Kavanaugh’s Accuser
There was a brief FBI investigation into Kavanaugh after a few other women spoke about incidents they’d witnessed — but at the time that felt like a formality or something, just to say it had been done. Much of what was being spoken about publicly was never investigated.
Now it looks like that was just the tip of the iceberg.
On Thursday, it was revealed that the bureau disclosed they actually received more than 4,500 tips on their tip line about Kavanaugh. JFC, WHUT?!
Obviously some of these may have been nothing, some may have been overlapping incidents… but we’re talking about THOUSANDS of tips here! If even a small fraction of them were serious, credible allegations, that’s a mountain!
You’re telling us there wasn’t a potential Supreme Court justice for whom there wasn’t so much controversy??
Related: 3rd Accuser Said Kavanaugh Joined ‘Gang Rape’ Parties
This all comes from a letter which was sent to Congress on June 30 in response to a request from TWO YEARS AGO by Senate Democrats; it was released Thursday by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
The letter also said the most relevant tips were gathered and provided to… the Trump White House. Specifically the Office of the White House counsel, at that time run by Don McGahn.
Assistant FBI Director Jill Tyson clarified for anyone under the wrong impression that this was a background check on behalf of the White House — and not a criminal assault probe:
“The authorities, policies and procedures relied on by the FBI to conduct [background investigations] are not the same as the authorities, policies, and procedures used to investigate criminal matters.”
Hence them not acting on or even further investigating the thousands of tips that came in on the phone and in emails.
Senate Dems were understandably flummoxed by the reveal, writing back in a letter to the bureau:
“The admissions in your letter corroborate and explain numerous credible accounts by individuals and firms that they had contacted the FBI with information ‘highly relevant to… allegations’ of sexual misconduct by Justice Kavanaugh, only to be ignored… If the FBI was not authorized to or did not follow up on any of the tips that it received from the tip line, it is difficult to understand the point of having a tip line at all.”
Fair point.
Dr. Ford’s attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks also responded to the shameful news, saying in an unequivocally worded statement:
“The FBI’s investigation into Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s serious allegations about Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct was sham and a major institutional failure.”
They pointed out the bureau never interview Dr. Ford herelf or anyone ontheir list of corroborating witnesses and “failed to act” on all the other tips, as well:
“Instead it handed the information over to the White House, allowing those who supported Kavanaugh to falsely claim that the FBI found no wrongdoing.”
They put the nail in the coffin by saying:
“Because the FBI and Trump’s White House Counsel hid the ball on this, we do not know how many of those 4,500 tips were consequential, how many of those tips supported Dr. Ford’s testimony, or how many showed that Kavanaugh perjured himself during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Our nation deserved better.”
Seems pretty clearly right to us. Then again, we thought his nomination should have been retracted the moment he started yelling at everyone in the room. Not even Judge Judy would stand for that kind of behavior, and now it’s on our Supreme Court. Sigh…
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