Brett Kavanaugh Don't Need No FBI Investigation Since GOP Staff Is ON IT

What does the Federal Bureau know about Investigations, anyway?

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley has decided no FBI investigation is needed into Christine Blasey Ford's claim that Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her, because investigating Supreme Court nominees is none of the FBI's business, and besides, there's a confirmation vote that needs to be rushed through. In a letter to committee Democrats, Grassley explained his guys are ON IT and dragging in a bunch of amateur detectives from the nation's top law enforcement agency would just be incredibly unfair to Kavanaugh, you monsters.

Grassley very patiently explained that in asking for additional checking into the claims, the Dems clearly don't understand the FBI's role, which is limited to the time between the nomination being made and the Judiciary Committee holding hearings, so TOO LATE. In fact, asking the FBI to look into the matter further would create a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS!!!!

[The] FBI does not make a credibility assessment of any information it receives with respect to a nominee. Nor is it tasked with investigating those matters that this Committee deems important. The Constitution assigns the Senate, and only the Senate, with the task of advising the President on his nominees and consenting if the circumstances merit. We have no power to commandeer an Executive Branch agency into conducting due diligence. The job of assessing and investigating a nominee's qualifications in order to decide whether to consent to the nomination is ours, and ours alone.

Oh, but what about the Anita Hill allegations in 1991? Those came up after the Judiciary Committee hearings, and the FBI investigated those, however hurriedly and sloppily. Nope, nothing doing, says Grassley, because of Secret Rule I Pulled Out Of My Ass Wednesday Morning: Hill's allegations were only leaked to the media after the last-minute FBI investigation was finished, so that's totally different, and the only reason the FBI handled the investigation was to protect Hill's identity, but now everyone knows who Dr. Ford is, so no FBI. Judiciary (then controlled by Dems) only reopened the investigation after Hill's identity became public, which means the committee is "in the same position the Committee was in" back then, don't you see? And the committee certainly didn't ask for a new FBI investigation in 1991, now did it?

Really. That's his reason. Go read the letter; we are not making that shit up, though it sure looks like Grassley is winging it with that confidentiality stuff. Maybe the fact that there had BEEN an FBI investigation counted for something? Nah.

Strangely enough, that's not what historian Tim Weiner, who's written books on the FBI and CIA, told WaPo columnist Greg Sargent:

He argued to me that the Republican argument against further FBI scrutiny of Ford's charges is "nonsense."

Weiner told me that it is not just desirable, but "essential," for the FBI to examine the new charges against Kavanaugh, "not just to determine whether he was a drunken rapey teenager, but to determine whether he is a liar ." Kavanaugh has flatly denied Ford's charges, and he is expected to do the same when he testifies publicly again.

"Drunken rapey teenager"? We can only conclude that "Tim Weiner" is a coded anagram for "Evan Hurst." Same number of letters.

Grassley explained all this in a couple of tweets which made clear this is all a matter of High Principle:

If Senate Dems think they need the FBI to investigate, why didn’t they alert the FBI on July 30? As soon as I learn… https: //t.co/3k7kVH5W30

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) 1537370576.0 

Yes, this is Grassley bitching about the Dems not alerting the FBI on July 30 AND insisting committee Dems would provoke a constitutional crisis by dragging the FBI into the Senate's business. And by Crom, Chuck Grassley will not hold with OUTSIDEAGITATORSINVESTIGATORS:

Cmte investigators are following up on the leads from Dr. Ford’s allegations & news stories No other OUTSIDE invest… https: //t.co/NKMcYuAyha

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) 1537370639.0 

Besides, Grassley's staff is perfectly fine at the investigating. Just look how open-minded top Grassley staffer Mike Davis is -- he briefly locked his Twitter account, but is totally dedicated to a fair and objective process of definitely confirming Kavanaugh:

Gosh, why WOULDN'T Dr Ford trust the committee to be fair and impartial? The even offered to let her be probed privately, maybe even with Democrats there. Couldn't expect that level of objectivity from the FBI, now could you? Besides, the Democrats were invited to participate in rushing Kavanaugh through, and they wouldn't rush him through, so they had their chance. Justice (Kavanaugh) will be done. Oh, and lest anyone misunderstand the bit where he said he was "unfazed and determined" and "We will confirm" Kavanaugh, Davis, when his account came back out of hiding, deleted the tweets and clarified absolutely nothing:  

That's some ratio, huh? 

Those terrible leftists are just bent on twisting his meaning and refusing to participate in the thorough and fair investigation that "will confirm Judge Kavanaugh." Only a crazy PARTISAN would think otherwise. Now shut up and confirm this partisan hack to a lifetime appointment, OK?

[ WaPo / Roll Call / Senate Judiciary Committee letter / Photo by Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons license 2.0 ]

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