U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) last week released a scathing report calling out the “sham” of the FBI’s investigation into SCOTUS Justice Brett Kavanaugh prior to his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2018.
(NOTE: Kavanaugh, who had 83 ethics complaints against him entering the hearings, was ultimately confirmed by a single vote, the narrowest confirmation in almost 150 years.)
Whitehouse, the former Rhode Island U.S. Attorney and state attorney general who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was one of Kavanaugh’s toughest interrogators during his hearings.
And Whitehouse’s new report returns major problems with Kavanaugh’s vetting that the Senator was already dissatisfied with during the proceedings.
Whitehouse is now answering accusations that his new report — his “investigation into the sham Kavanaugh investigation” — offers little more than what was already known. He also takes issue with the insinuation from the Right that the timing of the report — election year — is “so suspicious.”
Whitehouse defies both charges, saying “what’s new is” that his report uncovered that “the White House had total control of every aspect of the investigation.” In addition, the FBI, which — on Trump administration orders — did not investigate tips from a tip line it set up, was told “specifically not to get corroborating evidence.”
Whitehouse takes issue with the purportedly “suspicious” timing too, saying: “Trump blocked me for two years with absolute stonewalling, so don’t quarrel with me about timing.”
It’s been a few days since I published my report on the 2018 Kavanaugh investigation. pic.twitter.com/U8euuPdtlw
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) October 13, 2024
Below is an exchange Whitehouse had with FBI Director Christopher Wray in 2018, in which Wray acknowledged that all Kavanaugh background investigations were curtailed by the Trump White House.
Whitehouse asked Wray: “Is it also true that, in that supplemental B.I. (background investigation), the FBI took direction from the White House as to whom the FBI would question, and even what questions the FBI could ask?”
Wray confirmed that this was the case.
In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging until we got to the bottom of the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh.
I did, and today we have some updates. https://t.co/2Bx1cZzt6L
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) October 8, 2024