A Democratic senator suggested that the FBI’s background check on sexual assault claims against Brett Kavanaugh, who was then nominated to the Supreme Court in 2018, could have been “false” and wants newly-appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland will assist in an investigation, according to a report Tuesday.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who held the Kavanaugh Litigation Confirmation Hearing, asks Garland to help the Senate when questioned the extent to which the FBI conducted the investigation, The Guardian reported.
Christine Blasey Ford appeared to testify that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago when they were both high school students in Maryland.
Kavanugh vehemently denied the allegations and brought magazines from decades of his high school years to defend himself.
But court-martial Democrats who called for an investigation into the allegations said the FBI did not conduct a thorough investigation because officers did not interview Kavanaugh or Ford.
In a letter to Garland, Whitehouse said some witnesses wanted to talk to the FBI about their allegations against Kavanaugh, but the agency rejected them and said their cases were never assigned to an agent and were not they gathered evidence.
“This was a unique behavior in my experience, as the office is usually susceptible to information and testing; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge was built and there was no point of entry through which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI, “Whitehouse said, according to The Guardian.
He argued that while the FBI created a “tip line,” senators did not receive information on how or whether new claims were processed or evaluated.
And while a review of the complaints that came through the “advice line” indicated that the FBI had received a “stack” of new information, the senators got no explanation as to whether additional action was taken. to review the new data, according to Whitehouse. .
“It seems that this‘ line of advice ’worked more like a garbage can, with everything going down the councilor without having been checked in the figurative container,” he said.
He said he wants answers about “how, why and in whose order” the FBI conducted a “false” investigation and whether the claims collected on the “tip line” followed the standard of other complaints collected. for advice.