Apparently, the White House already made up its mind about the FBI report on the final FBI “investigation” into allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused women when he was younger, despite the fact that the Senate has not yet reviewed the materials given to them by the law enforcement agency — if they have received them at all.
“Investigation” has to go in quotes here, of course, because what took place was, by most accounts, a sham. At least two dozen witnesses who publicly announced they had pertinent testimony or evidence were never even contacted by the FBI, leaving giant gaping holes in what was clearly intended to be as quick and perfunctory a glimpse into the nominee’s background as possible.
White House spokesman Raj Shah, around 2:30 AM Eastern, tweeted the White House’s conclusions:
.@WhiteHouse statement on @FBI supplemental background investigation into Judge Brett Kavanaugh:
“The White House has received the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s supplemental background investigation into Judge Kavanaugh, and it is being transmitted to the Senate. (1/3)
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) October 4, 2018
With Leader McConnell’s cloture filing, Senators have been given ample time to review this seventh background investigation. This is the last addition to the most comprehensive review of a Supreme Court nominee in history, which includes extensive hearings, multiple (2/3)
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) October 4, 2018
committee interviews, over 1,200 questions for the record and over a half million pages of documents. 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 (3/3)
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) October 4, 2018
None of this is accurate.
First, how could the report be “being” transmitted to the Senate, according to the first tweet, and the Senate already have “been given ample time to review” it, according to the second? McConnell himself noted that the cloture filing came before the FBI report was in, proving again that the White House has no idea nor any interest in how any of this works.
Secondly, that “half million pages” of documents represents less than ten percent of available documents on Judge Kavanaugh.
The real question, however, is why Donald Trump and the Republicans are banking so hard on this one nominee. The fact is, if Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress, and they complete an actual investigation of Brett Kavanaugh that would examine his statements under oath before the Judiciary, he could very easily be impeached from the Supreme Court. And if it were done near the 2020 election, that seat would be filled by the next President, and all of their efforts would be for nothing.
He must be pretty darn special for some reason.
Featured image via screen capture
