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FBI report on Kavanaugh is sent to Senate; confirmation vote could be Saturday

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Supreme Court Nominations

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Posted

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh./PBS screenshot.

The FBI has completed its supplemental report on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and sent it to the Senate, where senators began to view it Thursday in a secure room at the Capitol.

White House spokesman Raj Shah tweeted early Thursday that the White House is fully confident that the Senate will vote to confirm Kavanaugh. The Washington Post, Politico, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CBS have coverage.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., set a cloture vote on the nomination for Friday, which would allow for a confirmation vote on Saturday.

Senators and select staff members started to review the materials at a sensitive compartmented information facility. The one-hour sessions alternate between political party with Republicans seeing the report first.

Anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal that the report found no corroboration of the allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.

The Times spoke with an anonymous official briefed on the FBI review, who said the agency contacted 10 people and interviewed nine of them. The report consists of interview summaries. The FBI did not interview Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault during a 1980s high school party. Nor did the bureau interview Kavanaugh, who denies the allegations.

See also: Kavanaugh hearings leave the country divided

The FBI reportedly focused on the sexual assault described by Ford and another incident described by former Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez, who has said Kavanaugh exposed himself during a drinking party and thrust his genitals in her face. Ramirez is said to be among the people interviewed by the FBI.

One person told the Post that he had overheard someone tearfully talking about an incident at Yale involving a fake penis and someone exposing himself, but when he contacted the FBI he was put on hold so long that he submitted the information through the agency’s website. That individual said he had not received a response as of Wednesday.

A lawyer told the Post that he represented a person who wanted to tell the FBI about a conversation with Ramirez about an incident at Yale. The lawyer, Alan Abramson, said he had not heard back from the FBI.

Lawyers for Ford said Wednesday their client had made a tremendous sacrifice in coming forward, “but those directing the FBI investigation were not interested in seeking the truth.”

More than 1,200 law professors are expressing their misgivings about Kavanaugh in a letter they plan to present to the Senate on Thursday.

The law professors say in the letter that Kavanaugh’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony regarding Ford’s sexual assault allegation “displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.” Law.com and the Post have coverage.

“Instead of trying to sort out with reason and care the allegations that were raised, Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory, and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to questioners,” the law professors wrote.

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