The Supreme Court Must Be Stopped, by Elie Mystal

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Trump White House curtailed FBI's Kavanaugh probe, report finds
by Avery Lotz
Axios
10/8/24

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United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh poses for an official portrait on October 7, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Trump White House allegedly sought to constrain and control a 2018 FBI investigation into now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, according to new details documented in a report released Tuesday.

The big picture: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's (D-R.I.) report details the extreme grip former President Trump's administration kept over the probe into Kavanaugh's alleged sexual misconduct, including having FBI tips forwarded to the White House and preventing agents from pursuing corroborating evidence.

• "The FBI's supplemental background investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh was unreliable, not because of FBI ineptitude, but because the Trump White House tightly controlled the scope of the investigation," the report reads.

• Whitehouse's years-long investigation found that messages to the FBI tip line regarding Kavanaugh's background check were forwarded directly to the White House and never probed.

• At the time, many involved in the case — and those who submitted tips — complained that the bureau did not investigate leads it was given.

Case in point: The White House allegedly instructed the FBI to speak to 10 potential witnesses, but the agency was not given latitude to pursue corroborating evidence.

• Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt slammed the report as "another attempt to delegitimize the Supreme Court" in a statement provided to Axios.

• "Everyone knows Brett Kavanaugh was unfairly slandered and smeared with lies in a Democrat-led hoax to derail his appointment to the Court that ultimately failed," she continued.

Flashback: Following Christine Blasey Ford's widely reported testimony that Kavanaugh had groped her at a high school party decades prior, Trump approved a limited, one-week-long FBI investigation into the allegations, which Kavanaugh has denied.

• Another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, alleged in a New Yorker story Kavanaugh had waved his penis in front of her face at a college dormitory party.

• After one of the most dramatic confirmation battles in modern history, the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump repeatedly vowed he had not restricted the investigation, claiming the FBI would have "free rein" and should talk to "whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion."

• Those Trump comments prompted an FBI official to question whether the "scope of the investigation had changed," per the report.

• Emails cited by the report demonstrated confusion among FBI employees, who repeatedly sought guidance. Eventually, additional interviews were requested by the White House.

• "Contrary to President Trump's public pronouncements, the Trump White House directed the FBI's supplemental background investigation through narrow requests for a small number of limited-inquiry interviews, beyond which the FBI was not authorized to investigate," the report found.

Zoom out: The FBI received more than 4,500 calls and messages related to Kavanaugh — none of which were screened or investigated, the report alleges.

• Additionally, the FBI did not interview Ford or Kavanaugh, despite Ford's attorney repeatedly contacting the agency to request an interview.

• The bureau was given no written protocols for the supplemental background investigation.

• Tips, the report notes, were sent through what is now called the National Threat Operations Center rather than a dedicated venue for the investigation.

• Two days before voting to confirm Kavanaugh, senators were given one copy of 1,600-plus pages of FBI research to review, most of which was raw information from tips, Whitehouse's report says.

What they're saying: "The Congressional report published today confirms what we long suspected: the FBI supplemental investigation of then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh was, in fact, a sham effort directed by the Trump White House to silence brave victims and other witnesses who came forward and to hide the truth," Ford's attorneys, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said in a statement.

The FBI declined to comment specifically on the report but said, "The FBI, in its role as an investigative service provider, responds to requests from the Office of White House Counsel and other government entities to conduct background investigations of candidates for certain positions."

• The agency added that the scope of any investigation is "limited to what is requested" but that the FBI followed a "long-standing, established process" for the inquiry into Kavanaugh.

The report took nearly six years to compile, the probe says, because of "executive branch delays, reluctance to answer even basic questions, and often-incomplete responses."

• Until 2021, the only information regarding details of the supplemental investigation senators could collect came from non-official channels, like a "publicly available YouTube video in which an agent explained the normal operating procedures for the FBI's 'tip line.'"