Last updated on March 18th, 2021 at 09:39 am
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is demanding that Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate the FBI’s faked background check of Brett Kavanaugh.
Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote in part in a letter to AG Garland:
In July 2019, Director Wray appeared at an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he assured senators he was “committed to making sure the FBI does all of its work by the book, utterly without partisan interference.” He further testified that he had met with Bureau personnel to ensure that the Kavanaugh background investigation was “consistent with our long-standing policies, practices, and procedures for background investigations.” But Director Wray has refused to answer Congressional inquiries about whether that was actually the case. Senators’ Questions for the Record from that July 2019 oversight hearing remain unanswered today, as does Senator Coons’ and my letter of August 1, 2019. Such stonewalling does not inspire confidence in the integrity of the investigation.
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If standard procedures were violated, and the Bureau conducted a fake investigation rather than a sincere, thorough, and professional one, that in my view merits congressional oversight to understand how, why, and at whose behest and with whose knowledge or connivance, this was done. The FBI “stonewall” of all questions related to this episode provides little reassurance of its propriety. If, on the other hand, the “investigation” was conducted with drawbridges up and a fake “tip line” and that was somehow “by the book,” as Director Wray claimed, that would raise serious questions about the “book” itself. It cannot and should not be the policy of the FBI to not follow up on serious allegations of misconduct during background check investigations.
The question is, what happens next?
Democrats have control of the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. At a minimum, Attorney General Garland needs to open an investigation, Congress needs to schedule hearings, and open their investigation into Kavanaugh, and leave open the possibility of impeachment for one of Trump‘s Supreme Court justices.
A man who potentially committed crimes against women is currently sitting on the Supreme Court. He and those who helped to put him there must be held accountable.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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