Democratic senators are demanding answers about the 4,500 tips the FBI received about then-SCOTUS-nominee Brett Kavanaugh that were never followed up on.
WHAT? FBI Received And Ignored 4,500 Tips About Kavanaugh
Brett KavanaughCredit: Crooks and Liars screenshot
July 23, 2021

It took the FBI two years to respond to Senate Democrats’ inquiries about its investigation into Kavanaugh and they are hardly satisfied with the CYA letter finally received.

From CNN:

The FBI disclosed that it received more than 4,500 tips on a phone line in 2018 as part of a background investigation into then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and provided "relevant" ones to former President Donald Trump's White House counsel.

The exact number of tips was disclosed in a June 30 letter released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Thursday. The letter was in response to a two-year-old request from Senate Democrats seeking more information about the handling of the investigation.

Sen. Whitehouse, along with six other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (Sens. Coons, Durbin, Leahy, Blumenthal, Hirono and Booker) wrote back to the FBI demanding further information about how the bureau handled the tips and how it decided what was “relevant.”

Most importantly the senators want to know whether the bureau was directed by the Trump White House not to interview Kavanaugh or Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexually assaulting her, and if not, why neither were interviewed.

The senators don’t want to wait another two years for answers, either. They asked the FBI to respond to their questions by August 31.

Not surprisingly, Blasey Ford’s lawyers are furious at the news. They called the FBI’s handling of the Kavanaugh inquiry "a sham and major institutional failure."

The American Constitution Society released a statement underscoring the seriousness of the situation:

The public has a right to know who was responsible for undermining the integrity of the FBI investigation. This news also raises questions over whether there should be a new thorough and fact-driven investigation into the original allegations against Justice Kavanaugh. Those responsible for the previous so-called investigation must be held accountable. Any lawyer who participated in that process has a bar license and ethical obligations that come with it.

I doubt Kavanaugh has enough character or decency to step down and I'm even more skeptical 2/3 of the Senate would vote to remove him from office if new, damning evidence is uncovered. But finding out what we should have known in 2018, before he was narrowly confirmed, and finding out who kept that information from the public is a BFD no matter what.

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