Several Democratic senators demanded more answers from the FBI about its handling of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s background investigation three years ago, when decades-old allegations of sexual assault were leveled against President Donald Trump’s nominee to the bench, bitterly dividing lawmakers over his suitability for the lifetime appointment.
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Their demands follow the FBI’s acknowledgment that it had received thousands of tips after the allegations surfaced — claims Kavanaugh has vehemently denied — but relayed comparatively few to the Trump White House for further scrutiny.
In a June 30 letter made public Thursday, a senior bureau official, Assistant Director Jill C. Tyson, told Sens. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that the agency had responded appropriately by providing the White House Counsel’s Office with the tips it felt were most relevant. Tyson’s letter also explained the limitations investigators felt they faced in carrying out the review.
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“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,” wrote the senators in a reply to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray released Thursday. “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.”
Tyson described the bureau conducting a background investigation — and not a criminal probe — as within the bounds of its authority. She said the bureau received more than 4,500 tips during the Senate confirmation process for Kavanaugh.
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“It was established at the direction of the FBI’s Security Division to centralize and manage incoming information related to the nomination,” Tyson wrote. “The Security Division section handling the BI and supplemental background investigations provided all relevant tips to the Office of White House Counsel.”
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The process played out at the height of the #MeToo Movement and prompted a forceful defense of Kavanaugh by Trump and other Republicans. Democrats said the accusations were disqualifying for the highest court.
An initial FBI background check of Kavanaugh had already been completed ahead of his confirmation hearings and his accusers coming forward. The supplemental background investigation began in response to the allegation.
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Whitehouse, Coons and other Democratic lawmakers requested additional information Wednesday from Wray.
Whitehouse and Coons raised concerns in July 2019 about the insufficiency of the background check on Kavanaugh after noting in a hearing the lack of clarity about the process by which the public could contact the FBI. The lawmakers reached out to Wray to learn more about why the FBI did not contact witnesses who said they possessed “highly relevant” information about the nominee and to ask about the role of the Trump White House in the investigation.
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The FBI responded to the lawmakers’ request for more details nearly two years later, in Tyson’s June letter.
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The FBI said it acted by passing on the tips to the White House, which it said was all it could do given that this was a background investigation — not a criminal investigation. And it is unclear whether the 10 individuals who were interviewed during the supplemental background investigation were discovered through the tip line.
Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) also signed the letter sent this week to Wray.
The letter “belies the former president’s insistence that his administration did not limit the Bureau’s investigation of Justice Kavanaugh, and his claim that he ‘want[ed] the FBI to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion,’” lawmakers wrote.