After Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced that he wanted to delay the final confirmation vote for a week so that an FBI investigation could look into the allegations of sexual misconduct by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the Trump White House ordered on. Sens. Collins, Murkowski, and Manchin all backed Flake. There was no choice. Three allegations have been lobbed at Judge Kavanaugh. One by Christine Blasey Ford, where she alleges a drunken 17-ear-old Kavanaugh tried to rape her. Deborah Ramirez says Kavanaugh exposed himself at a party at Yale. And Julie Swetnick says Kavanaugh was part of a gang rape party. The third is the most absurd. Swetnick was college-aged at the time, and she hung around with high schoolers, saw debauchery and gang rape at one of their parties, but then went back nine more times and didn’t tell anyone…until now. Michael Avenatti represents her. Her credibility is shoddy to say the least. All of the allegations have zero witnesses or evidence to corroborate the claims. They’re baseless, but have been weaponized by the Left to destroy Kavanaugh. Democrats desperately want to keep that Supreme Court seat vacant—and boost their chances for the 2018 midterms.
The FBI investigation into these allegations is not a criminal one. The bureau can’t subpoena records or force witnesses to testify. It will be just another week to attack this man, his family, and his reputation, while the FBI report, which will be inconclusive by design, will be declared insufficient prompting another declaration of Democratic opposition. What a surprise, right? It could also give a reason for squishy Republicans to jump ship. Now, NBC News is reporting that the Trump White House has put limits on the investigation. Before we all freak out, the news organization, citing a U.S. official many paragraphs down, wrote that it isn't unusual for parameters to be established:
The White House is limiting the scope of the FBI’s investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, multiple people briefed on the matter told NBC News.
While the FBI will examine the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, the bureau has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of engaging in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s, those people familiar with the investigation told NBC News. A White House official confirmed that Swetnick's claims will not be pursued as part of the reopened background investigation into Kavanaugh.
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Instead of investigating Swetnick's claims, the White House counsel’s office has given the FBI a list of witnesses they are permitted to interview, according to several people who discussed the parameters on the condition of anonymity. They characterized the White House instructions as a significant constraint on the FBI investigation and caution that such a limited scope, while not unusual in normal circumstances, may make it difficult to pursue additional leads in a case in which a Supreme Court nominee has been accused of sexual assault.
The limited scope seems to be at odds with what some members of the Senate judiciary seemed to expect when they agreed to give the FBI as much as a week to investigate allegations against Kavanaugh, a federal judge who grew up in the Washington DC area and attended an elite all-boys high school before going on to Yale.
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A U.S. official briefed on the matter said its not unusual for the White House to set the parameters of an FBI background check for a presidential nominee. The FBI had no choice but to agree to these terms, the sources told NBC News, because it is conducting the background investigation on behalf of the White House.
Two sources familiar with the investigation said the FBI will also not be able to examine why Kavanaugh’s account of his drinking at Yale University differs from those of some former classmates, who have said he was known as a heavy drinker. Those details may be pertinent to investigating claims from Ramirez who described an alleged incident of sexual misconduct she said occurred while Kavanaugh was inebriated. Ramirez's lawyer said Saturday that she had been contacted by the FBI and would cooperate.
Ford’s legal team has already rejected the “artificial” deadline on the investigation.
And I’m sure Democrats will now say that the FBI probe, which they wanted, is not thorough enough, prompting another call for a delay. That’s their game plan. It’s been that way the whole time. Run out the clock, with many dashes of character assassination.
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UPDATE: President Trump wonders if Democrats leaked the letter Christine Blasey Ford wrote to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) office, which was delivered in July. Feinstein sat on it for weeks, keeping if from her Senate colleague before dropping it at the 11thhour. This is was caused the circus we’re in, though the president said this FBI probe be a “blessing in disguise.”
President Donald Trump on Saturday fully backed his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, said the FBI investigation of him may be a blessing in disguise and questioned whether Sen. Dianne Feinstein might have leaked the allegation from Christine Blasey Ford.
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"I think it's going very well," Trump said. "The FBI as you know is all over talking to everybody and I would expect, he's a very high-quality person. I would expect it's going to turn out very well for the judge, there's never been anybody that's been looked at like Judge Kavanaugh."
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Trump added that "having the FBI go out and do a thorough investigation, whether it's three days or seven days, I think it's going to be less a week, but having them do a thorough investigation, I actually think will be a blessing in disguise, it'll be a good thing."
I think frankly the FBI has a chance reveal a lot of different things," Trump said. "I'd like to find out who leaked the papers, was it Sen. Feinstein? Because certainly her body language was not exactly very good when they asked her that question, so I would like to find out, as part of it, who leaked the papers, which Democrats leaked the papers."