WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected Democratic criticism of the White House’s handling of an FBI probe into sexual misconduct accusations against his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, as Senate Republicans manoeuvred to confirm the conservative judge within days.
The White House sent the FBI report to the Senate Judiciary Committee early on Thursday, and senators in both parties were poring over it behind closed doors to determine whether it resolved concerns raised about the nominee. Trump, pushing the Senate to confirm Kavanaugh to a lifetime job on the top US court, said on Twitter after the FBI finished its investigation that the allegations against his nominee were “totally uncorroborated.”
Democrats complained that the FBI probe, ordered by Trump last week at the request of Republican Senator Jeff Flake and others, was too narrow in scope and left out critical witnesses.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said it appeared that the White House “blocked the FBI from doing its job.”
“Democrats agreed that the investigation’s scope should be limited. We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands,” she said.
“The most notable part of this report is what’s not in it,” Feinstein said, noting that the FBI did not interview Kavanaugh himself or Christine Blasey Ford, the university professor who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault in 1982.
The confirmation process was already deeply partisan given that Kavanaugh would deepen conservative control of the Supreme Court, and Democrats have fought his nomination from the outset. It became an intense political drama when three women emerged to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s when he was in high school and college.
Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, has denied the accusations. Trump’s fellow Republicans have stood by the judge, and the party leadership said on Thursday the FBI report had not changed their view of Kavanaugh’s fitness for the job.
Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said the report confirmed Democratic fears that “this was a very limited process that would constrain the FBI from getting all the facts.”
Republicans expressed growing confidence that Kavanaugh would be confirmed by the Senate after a political battle that has riveted Americans weeks before November 6 elections in which Democrats are trying to take control of Congress from the Republicans.
A senior Senate Republican aide said there was growing confidence that Republican Senators Susan Collins and Flake and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin — all swing votes — would support Kavanaugh. If so, that could be enough for a Trump victory in this battle. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is another swing vote who has been heavily lobbied in Alaska to oppose Kavanaugh. — Reuters
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