Democrats question FBI investigation of Kavanaugh

John Michael July 25, 2021

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic senators raise new concerns about the thoroughness of the FBI’s probe into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s background after the agency revealed it received thousands of leads and provided “all relevant ones” to the White House Counselor’s Office.

In response to questions from Democrats, the FBI revealed in a letter late last month that it had received more than 4,500 leads while investigating Kavanaugh’s past when he was nominated in 2018 by President Donald Trump.

The process represented the first time the FBI set up a hotline for a nominee in the process of being confirmed by the Senate, reported an assistant to the FBI Director, Jill Tyson, on behalf of Director Christopher Wray.

A group of Democratic senators indicated in a letter dated Wednesday to Wray that his response “raises important additional questions.” They asked him to explain, among other things, how many leads the FBI decided were relevant, the criteria agents used to determine it, and what policies and procedures were used to review the leads.

Senators also asked for more details about the tip line, including how it was staffed and how the leads were recorded or preserved.

“Your letter confirms that the FBI tip line was a departure from previous practices and that the FBI was politically constrained by the Trump White House,” the senators wrote.

Kavanaugh was confirmed for the Supreme Court in October 2018 after a bitter process in which claims emerged that he had sexually assaulted women three decades ago. He emphatically denied the allegations.