As Senators lined up to read the FBI report on the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday morning, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said the investigation found “no hint of misconduct.”
After days of speculation, coupled with partisan infighting, the Senate has officially received the FBI’s supplemental background check into the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh.
The Senate Judiciary Committee received the report from the White House at 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Grassley said in a statement. The report, which is only available in hard copy, is being held in the Sensitive Compartment Information Facility in the Capito. Only Senators and ten staff members who have the requisite security clearances can view it.
Grassley and his staff were slated to begin viewing the report at 8 a.m. ET Thursday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, entered the room a little bit before 9 a.m.
Here’s what Grassley said about the report:
“I’ve now received a committee staff briefing on the FBI’s supplement to Judge Kavanaugh’s background investigation file. There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know. These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations. There’s also no contemporaneous evidence. This investigation found no hint of misconduct and the same is true of the six prior FBI background investigations conducted during Judge Kavanaugh’s 25 years of public service.”
The White House delivered the report to the Senate just hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell officially kicked off the procedural process for Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote on the Senate floor.
“With this additional information, the White House is fully confident the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement.
But the process of the supplemental background check, like Kavanaugh’s confirmation process itself, has been fraught with partisan tension. Republicans were coerced into a background check last week, when Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who sits on the judiciary committee and is one of three Republican Senators explicitly undecided on the nomination, said his vote to move Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Senate floor was conditional on a new FBI investigation. Flake was backed by Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat. McConnell, clearly lacking the necessary votes to confirm Kavanaugh, was forced to concede to their demands. But reports soon emerged that the White House was limiting the scope of the investigation, even after Trump said the FBI could interview anyone agents thought necessary.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which had appeared to be almost a sure thing, was thrust into doubt when Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, came forward publicly and alleged that Kavanaugh had assaulted her when they were teenagers over three decades ago. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have since come forward with their own allegations. Ramirez alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were at Yale University, and Swetnick has claimed she was gang raped at a party Kavanaugh attended when they were in high school, and she witnessed him at other parties spiking alcohol in an attempt to get women inebriated. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied all the allegations.
Both Ford and Kavanaugh testified before the Senate judiciary committee last week. But the FBI investigation did not include interviews with either one of them. Republicans argued that their testimonies in front of the committee should be sufficient. Shah said Thursday that the investigation consisted of ten witness interviews. These include Mark Judge, who Ford alleges was the only other witness in the room when Kavanaugh assaulted her, and Ramirez.
The investigation did not encompass Swetnick’s allegations, according to lawmakers and her attorney Michael Avenatti.
But both Ford and Ramirez’s legal teams expressed dissatisfaction with the scope of the investigation. Ford’s lawyers protested the fact that she hadn’t been interviewed, and Ramirez’s lawyers said she had provided the FBI with 20 witnesses who could corroborate her account. They say the FBI interviewed none of them.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Ramirez’s attorneys wrote they were “deeply disappointed” by the investigation.
“We can only conclude that the FBI – or those controlling the investigation – did not want to learn the truth behind Ramirez’s allegation,” they wrote.
Despite these concerns, Grassley said he believed the FBI had done its job properly.
“I trust that the career agents of the FBI have done their work independent of political or partisan considerations. That’s exactly what senators from both sides asked for. Now it’s up to senators to fulfill their constitutional duty and make a judgment,” Grassley said.
He added that a “presumption of innocence” should prevail and called on other Senators to move past the investigation.
“Fundamentally, we senators ought to wipe away the muck from all the mudslinging and politics and look at this nomination with clear eyes,” Grassley said. “It’s time to vote. I’ll be voting to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.”
