A Democratic senator has cast doubts on the FBI’s investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Sheldon Whitehouse is calling on the new attorney general, Merrick Garland, to facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into “how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing”, The Guardian reports.
Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, who claimed that the sitting Supreme Court judge attacked her in 1982 when she was 15 and he was 17. Kavanaugh has always denied the allegation.
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The FBI was asked to investigate the claims during his confirmation process. But the agency has been “accused by some Democratic senators of conducting an incomplete background check”, the paper continues.
Among the concerns listed by Whitehouse in a letter to Garland are the fact that Kavanaugh and Ford “were never interviewed as part of the probe” and that some witnesses “could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony”, the paper adds.
Whitehouse said he is seeking answers about “how, why, and at whose behest” the FBI conducted a “fake” investigation, adding that witnesses being unable to give testimony represented “unique behaviour” by the agency.
“The Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,” he added.
In recent weeks, Kavanaugh has “dismayed conservatives” by casting “the deciding vote preventing the Supreme Court from taking up pro-Trump election lawsuits”, The Hill reports.
His “apparent break with the court’s three staunchest conservatives” appeared “to catch his colleagues by surprise, and provoked ire among some on the political right who viewed the move as an act of betrayal”, the site adds.
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