Connect the Dots 101

“The Senators’ oversight inquiry reveals disturbing gaps in the FBI’s supplemental background investigation process for judicial nominees—gaps that enabled the White House to undermine the Senate’s ability to reliably exercise its advice and consent responsibility with respect to the Kavanaugh nomination….

“Far from getting to the bottom of the allegations against Kavanaugh, the supplemental background investigation
performed by the FBI raised additional questions about the thoroughness of the FBI’s review and whether its
scope had been purposely curtailed….

The report’s conclusions are:

• First, the Senate’s reliance on the FBI’s supplemental background investigation
  to inform its constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was misplaced. Multiple Senators expressly cited the supplemental background investigation’s apparent inability to uncover corroborating evidence of the allegations against Kavanaugh as a ground for voting to confirm Kavanaugh. Yet the supplemental background investigation was fawed and incomplete, as the FBI did not follow up on numerous leads that could have produced potentially corroborating or otherwise relevant information.
• Second, while President Trump publicly claimed the FBI had “free rein” to take any investigative steps it deemed necessary, the Trump White House exercised total control over the scope of the investigation, preventing the
  FBI from interviewing relevant witnesses and following up on tips. The White House refused to authorize basic investigatory steps that might have uncovered information corroborating the allegation

• Third, although the Trump Administration and the FBI assured the Senate that the FBI’s investigation was being conducted “by the book,” they failed to disclose that there was actually no “book” at all. The FBI produced no written protocols for supplemental background investigations, saying it was merely acting as the “agent” for the White House in such matters
• Fourth, the FBI’s tip line was not used to facilitate the FBI’s supplemental background investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. On instructions from the White House, the FBI did not investigate thousands of tips that came in through the FBI’s tip line. Instead, all tips related to Kavanaugh were forwarded to the White House without investigation. If anything, the White House may have used the tip line to steer FBI investigators away from derogatory or damaging information.