Sheldon Whitehouse wants FBI "investigation" of Brett Kavanaugh looked into

This'll have Republican heads exploding. But I'm all for it.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly-confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

The supreme court justice was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford and faced several other allegations of misconduct following Ford’s harrowing testimony of an alleged assault when she and Kavanaugh were in high school.

[...]

The FBI was called to investigate the allegations during the Senate confirmation process but was later accused by some Democratic senators of conducting an incomplete background check. For example, two key witnesses – Ford and Kavanaugh – were never interviewed as part of the inquiry.

Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence.

“This was unique behavior in my experience, as the Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,” Whitehouse said.

[...]

While senators’ brief review of the allegations gathered by [an FBI] tip line showed a “stack” of information had come in, there was no further explanation on the steps that had been taken to review the information, Whitehouse said.

He also criticized FBI director Chris Wray, who Joe Biden has elected to remain in place, for not answering questions about the investigation.

[...]

While it is unclear whether the FBI would re-open an investigation into Kavanaugh, who is now one of nine justices on the supreme court, the letter could push Garland to force the DOJ to respond to questions about the investigation into Kavanaugh.

  Guardian

Good.

UPDATE:

Yeah, that went under the rug and down the memory hole.

Isn't it awfull how they ruined poor Bret Kavanaugh's life?

And Tucker Carlson.



 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Grassley's an ass

I think that's pretty well confirmed. 



The Trump presidency has opened the gates for anyone who wants to be unapologetically irony-challenged or dishonest.

I don't think she should release them.  They're going to put Kavanaugh on the bench anyway, and she's already suffered enough at the hands of these assholes.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

When is George Conway going to get a divorce?

Of COURSE she did.

“The president is pointing out factual inconsistencies. By Ford’s own testimony, there are gaps in her memory, there are facts that she cannot remember, how she got home, how she got there, where the house was, what the date was,” Conway said in an appearance on Fox News.

“If those who are pretending that they want to find the truth don’t fess up and say ‘but we can’t find the truth when she doesn’t know all the facts,’ that is part of the testimony that she put in under sworn statements,” Conway added.

  The Hill

1) Not remembering is not "inconsistencies";
2) "When she doesn't know all the facts," is where the FBI comes in.

Jesus, these people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And Tom Cotton is NOT - I repeat, NOT - using the Kavanaugh allegations for his own publicity

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office will be investigated to determine whether it leaked a confidential letter from one of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers, Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday.

Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, also said lawyers recommended to Christine Blasey Ford by Democrats will face a Washington, D.C., bar investigation for telling her that Senate Judiciary Committee staffers would not travel to California to interview her about her sexual-assault allegation.

“They have betrayed her,” Cotton said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “She has been victimized by Democrats ... on a search-and-destroy mission for Brett Kavanaugh.”

He also said Democrats would be at fault if women become less likely to report sexual assaults now because they did not keep Ford’s request confidential, as she had asked.

[...]

The FBI investigation into Ford's sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh is unlikely to bring any new evidence to light, Cotton said, adding that the Judiciary Committee had already conducted interviews and/or received letters from people that Ford said attended the gathering at which the alleged assault occurred.

“We already know what everyone at the party has said,” he said, adding that the investigation will likely make a few senators more comfortable about voting to confirm Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.

  Politico

Are any uncomfortable about that?

You remember Tom Cotton, don't you?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Graham dismisses two idiots who claimed to be Ford's attackers

So, at least there's that.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday dismissed the credibility of two men who have claimed to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Christine Blasey Ford may have mistook Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for them during an alleged sexual assault in the 1980s. "One’s crazy as a loon. I don’t believe the other one. I’m not going to play this game," Graham said on "CBS This Morning."

  The Hill

But the stunt already did its trick: raw meat to Trumpites.

Staff for the committee's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said that during a review of Ford's claims that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her during a 1980s high school party, two men came forward to suggest it was a case of mistaken identity.

On Monday, a man submitted a written statement and spoke with staff from the Judiciary Committee after he claimed he believes he may have been involved in the alleged incident with Ford. He spoke again with investigators on Tuesday and described his recollection of his interaction with Ford, then submitted a more detailed written statement on Wednesday.

Investigators from the committee also spoke over the phone on Wednesday with a second man who said he believes he should be the target of Ford's allegation, not Kavanaugh.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

These are some die-hard Trumpians

Senate Judiciary Committee investigators spoke to two men earlier this week who believe they may have been involved the alleged sexual assault at the center of Christine Blasey Ford's accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of, the committee said late Wednesday.

  The Hill

Are you kidding me? I wonder what they're getting paid. They must be huge losers, because apparently they've got nothing left to lose.

On Monday, a man submitted a written statement and spoke with staff from the Judiciary Committee after he claimed he believes he may have been involved in the alleged incident with Ford. He spoke again with investigators on Tuesday, and described his recollection of his interaction with Ford.

On Wednesday, the man provided a more in-depth written statement, the panel said. On the same day, investigators from the committee spoke over the phone with a second man who believes he should be the target of Ford's allegation, not Kavanaugh.

The men were not identified by the committee, and spokesmen for Grassley didn't immediately respond to a request for information about the two individuals.

[...]

Lily Adams, a spokeswoman for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), said they found out about the interviews from reporters on Twitter.

"What the Judiciary Republicans are doing tonight is both pathetic and completely unsurprising," she added in a subsequent tweet, saying Republicans were "releasing random doppelgänger ... to try to muddy waters."

A Democratic aide, asked about the timeline from Republicans, said Democrats weren't informed of the assertions or the interviews "in violation of Senate rules. This is shameful and the height of irresponsibility."

This is the Republican Party of Devin Nunes, Paul Ryan, Orrin Hatch, and Chuck Grassley. What do you expect? They will stop at nothing to keep power.

UPDATE:  Graham dismisses these idiots:  "One’s crazy as a loon. I don’t believe the other one. I’m not going to play this game," Graham said on "CBS This Morning."

Have I mentioned that Orrin Hatch is a prick?

Yeah, and same senator whose office was encouraging people to watch for Ed Whelan's story that somebody else committed the attack on Ford.

Letter from Christine Ford to Chuck Grassley

Have I mentioned that Grassley is a prick?

No such luck.  He posted it.

No recollection...or unwilling

CNN has learned that the committee has reached out to a longtime friend of Ford named Leland Ingham Keyser.

I understand that you have been identified as an individual who was in attendance at a party that occurred circa 1982 described in a recent Washington Post article," a committee staffer wrote Keyser earlier this week.

On Saturday night, her lawyer, Howard Walsh, released a statement to CNN and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Simply put," Walsh said, "Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford."

[...]

Ford's lawyer Debra Katz said in response to Keyser's attorney's statement that it makes sense that Keyser wouldn't remember, because Ford has said she did not share her allegations "publicly or with anyone for years."

It's not surprising that Ms Keyser has no recollection of the evening as they did not discuss it," Katz said in a statement. "It's also unremarkable that Ms. Keyser does not remember attending a specific gathering 30 years ago at which nothing of consequence happened to her."

[...]

In addition, Patrick J. Smyth issued a statement. "I understand that I have been identified by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as 'PJ' who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post," Smyth said in his statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I am issuing this statement today to make it clear to all involved that I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh."

"Personally speaking, I have known Brett Kavanaugh since high school and I know him to be a person of great integrity, a great friend, and I have never witnessed any improper conduct by Brett Kavanaugh towards women. To safeguard my own privacy and anonymity, I respectfully request that the Committee accept this statement in response to any inquiry the Committee may have."

  CNN

I expect most of those people are Republicans of a certain financial situation (well above average), and wouldn't expect much, if any, corroboration for Ford,even if they do remember such a party and such an incident.  And the men probably don't want their own past during that time to be looked into.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A message to Mitch McConnell from Senator Doug Jones

That depends on who you mean by "we".

Bromwich joining Christine Ford's legal team

Former federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich has joined the legal team assisting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school.

[...]

Bromwich, founder and managing principal of The Bromwich Group, has most recently represented former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. He is well-known in Washington, having served, among other positions, as inspector general for the U.S. Department of Justice and as the country’s top offshore drilling regulator in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill.

[...]

In joining Ford’s legal team, Bromwich will be working primarily with her lead attorneys, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks of Washington’s Katz, Marshall & Banks.

[...]

In a letter Saturday, Bromwich resigned his position as senior counsel at Washington, D.C., law firm Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber, saying: “My role will likely require me to appear publicly on Dr. Ford’s behalf, and the Senate is being advised of my involvement this afternoon. Because objections have been raised within the partnership to my doing so while employed by the firm, I am resigning from the firm, effective immediately.”

  National Law Journal

Wow. Are his partners concerned that in the future, should they have to argue a case before Kavanaugh, they might not get a fair trial?  Bromwich must really be serious about Ford-Kavanaugh; after all, Ford has what seem to be good attorneys now - at least they've certainly held their own dealing with Grassley.

As an aside: Michael Avenatti offered to help, and they turned him down.  Can't say I blame them.  That wouldn't have been the look they need for this.  He, on the other hand, thinks they're making a mistake.

Actually, I'm kind of surprsied, given all that's happened over the last few days, that Kavanaugh's hasn't withdrawn his name from consideration. 

Smoking gun time?

On Sunday, Ford noticed that — even before her name became public — Whelan appeared to be seeking information about her.

That morning, Ford alerted an associate via email that Whelan had looked at her LinkedIn page, according to the email, which was reviewed by The Post. LinkedIn allows some subscribers to see who views their pages. Ford sent the email about 90 minutes after The Post shared her name with a White House spokesman and hours before her identity was revealed in a story posted on its website.

  WaPo

So, who's the White House spokesman, and who clued in Whelan?

A White House spokesman said Friday that neither Kavanaugh nor anyone in the White House gave Ford’s name to Whelan before it was disclosed by The Post.

Technically that could be true. It may have been passed from the White House to any one of the cabal that has been desperately trying to get Kavanaugh cleared. But it had to have come from the White House.  (Or directly from Kavanaugh because he knows who he attempted to rape.)

This may clear up the quick change between these two tweets:



Perhaps someone from the Post  who contacted the White House for comment on the story above did it after Grassley made his ultimatum (which was hedged after an earlier one saying 5pm) and before the official notice of postponement of the hearing.

Surely we'll be hearing very soon that Kavanaugh has withdrawn his name from consideration.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Got 'em by the short ones, apparently

UPDATE:

This may explain what happened.

Whelan's helpers

A good place to start is Orrin Hatch's office.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Grassley flop sweat

Whelan worked with a PR firm

After suggesting on Twitter on Tuesday that he had obtained information that would exculpate Kavanaugh from the sexual assault allegation made by Christine Blasey Ford, Whelan worked over the next 48 hours with [CRC Public Relations, the prominent Alexandria, Virginia-based P.R. firm] and its president, Greg Mueller, to stoke the anticipation. A longtime friend of Kavanaugh’s, Whelan teased his reveal — even as he refused to discuss it with other colleagues and close friends, a half dozen of them said.

  Politico

They're obviously not as stupid as Whelan. 'No. Noooooooo. He didn't tell me what exactly he had up his sleeve.'

Thanks in part to the anticipation Whelan ginned up, Republicans who had gotten excited by the prospect that he really did have information that would solve Kavanaugh’s problems drew attention to Whelan. They later insisted they were kept in the dark until he went public, and fled from any association with Whelan’s theory.

Run, you chickenshits, run.

The coordinated effort was a testament to the far-reaching but frenzied attempt among conservatives to save Kavanaugh, which appeared to have spun out of the White House’s control. Indeed, Whelan told associates that he had kept his friend Kavanaugh and those working with him in the White House in the dark about his plans.

That's the lot of every Scooter Libby in politics. Somebody has to take the fall, and it's not a stretch to figure it will be the guy who put his neck on the line.

On Friday, hours after Whelan called his decision to name and post photographs of Kavanaugh’s high school classmate “an appalling an inexcusable mistake of judgment,” CRC helped organize a news conference featuring an array of women who dismissed Ford’s allegations.

Triage!

Best known for its work with the Swift Boat Veterans in 2004, CRC bills itself as a full-service communications firm “specializing in media relations, social media and issues management,” according to its website. It has long been the go-to communications firm for conservative organizations in Washington and across the country. Its current clients include the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network, the chief outside groups working to help confirm Kavanaugh.

But neither Kavanaugh nor Grassley's asses knew a thing about it, right?

After unsuccessful attempts to persuade reporters to chase down a theory he put forward on Twitter [...] Whelan worked with CRC's Mueller.

Not even Fox???  The fact that he couldn't sell the story to reporters is remarkable and should have been a flashing red light to him - and the Kavanaugh cabal.

It is unclear to what extent Whelan was coordinating with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and other Republicans on Capitol Hill. He was in communication with at least one Republican member of the committee this week, and that member told associates he was aware Whelan’s theory involved the home of a Kavanaugh classmate near the Chevy Chase Country Club.

Matt Whitlock, deputy chief of staff to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), directed people to Whelan’s Twitter feed on Wednesday in a tweet of his own and later deleted his tweet.

[...]

After Whelan unveiled his theory Thursday evening, Whitlock deleted the tweet, explaining that he “didn’t want to promote” anything that “dragged an unrelated private citizen into this unfortunate situation.”

“I had no idea," Whitlock added, "what Ed was planning.”

Sure. And Hatch himself didn't know anything about it, right?

Neither Whelan nor the CRC's president responded to a request for comment.

What a surprise.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ed Whelan's strategy

On Thursday night, Twitter was aflame with the news that a prominent conservative legal strategist had gone public with the theory that another man may have been the perpetrator of the alleged sexual assault against Christine Blasey Ford.

The strategist suggested that Ford had confused this man for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh — and worse, he named the other man, in effect publicly accusing him of committing attempted rape.

Ford promptly denied that she had confused this man for Kavanaugh. [...] Kavanaugh needs to clarify whether he had any advance knowledge of this strategy of pinning the blame on someone else.

Senior Democratic aides tell me that, in the upcoming Judiciary Committee hearing, Senate Democrats are likely to pose questions along these lines directly to Kavanaugh, when he is under oath.

The conservative strategist who floated the alternate attempted rape theory, Ed Whelan, has been active in conservative judicial circles for a long time, and is close to Kavanaugh. He posted a long Twitter thread — which we will not link to here, and nor will we name the man he fingered — that rather creatively employed maps and floor plans of the house at which he suggested the attack took place. Whelan also posted the name and a photo of his alternate suspect.

[...]

The senior aide also noted that this was particularly important to pursue given that a particular person was named, and because it constituted an open acknowledgment by a top Kavanaugh ally that “the party in question” — where the alleged attack took place — “actually happened.”

[...]

Whelan apologized on Friday morning for publicly implicating someone else, and it is, of course, entirely possible that Kavanaugh had no knowledge whatsoever of Whelan’s machinations.

  Greg Sargeant @ WaPo

But not likely. Give him another chance to lie to Congress.

On Thursday, a top aide to Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, a Utah Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, mysteriously told everyone to keep an eye on Whelan’s Twitter feed. Though he has since claimed no knowledge of Whelan’s plan, this at least raises questions as to whether it had come up in internal discussions with the very Republicans who will vote to move Kavanaugh’s nomination forward.

Indeed, Steve Schmidt, who ran Supreme Court confirmation efforts for Republicans in the past but recently left the GOP, was quite forceful on this point. He noted on Twitter that “it is inconceivable to me,” based on his own experience, “that Whelan published that email without discussions, debate and assistance” from the White House and “GOP Senators and staff.”

#MeToo.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and White House officials immediately sought to distance themselves from Whelan’s claims and said they were not aware of his plans to identify the former classmate, now a middle school teacher, who could not be reached for comment and did not answer the door at his house Thursday night.

Whelan did not respond to requests for comment. He had told people around him that he had spent several days putting together the theory and thought it was more convincing than her story, according to two friends who had talked to him.

On Friday morning, Whelan said he had made an “inexcusable mistake” by identifying Kavanaugh’s classmate.

[...]

Whelan has been involved in helping to advise Kavanaugh’s confirmation effort and is close friends with both Kavanaugh and Leonard Leo, the head of the Federalist Society who has been helping to spearhead the nomination. Kavanaugh and Whelan also worked together in the Bush administration.

Kavanaugh and his allies have been privately discussing a defense that would not question whether an incident involving Ford happened, but instead would raise doubts that the attacker was Kavanaugh, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

[...]

Earlier this week, Kavanaugh told Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), one of his most fervent supporters, that Ford has the wrong perpetrator in mind and that he has not attended a party like the one Ford described in an account she gave The Post this week of the alleged assault.

  WaPo

And as far as I know, Kavanaugh has not denied any involvement yet. I have a feeling they're all now bunkered to decide the best way for him to withdraw. Or maybe I'm just hoping.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

GOP running for cover

That's pretty specific as to who he DIDN'T talk to.

Trump's speculation about why Ford didn't report her alleged high-school-era assault if it “was as bad as she says" comes just hours after a close Kavanaugh ally sought to implicate another classmate of the nominee and Ford in the attack on her -- a Kavanaugh exoneration theory hotly anticipated by the GOP that landed with a deafening thud.

The one-two punch of Trump and prominent conservative lawyer Ed Whelan's unsuccessful attempts to undercut Ford and boost Kavanaugh leaves the GOP effort to confirm the 53-year-old appeals court judge in fresh peril. It caps a week of roller-coaster talks over whether his 51-year-old accuser, a California-based professor, will testify publicly.

[...]

Republicans said that their party is now more likely to accommodate Ford’s attorney’s requests for testimony next week after the president’s broadside, given the lack of compassion it showed toward an alleged victim. She’s asked for one camera, subpoenas of other witnesses, to not be in the same room as Kavanaugh and to testify after him.

“The issue is that the compassion component Is now turned on its head because you have the president filling the airwaves with something that is not compassionate,” said a plugged-in former Republican leadership aide. “People will go out of their way now to be much more accommodating to unreasonable requests than they were yesterday.”

  Politico

I guess at least it's good they're concerned about the optics. They sure aren't concerned about the justice.

Whelan, president of the right-leaning Ethics and Public Policy Center, had heavily forecast new information about Ford's allegation that emerged as a series of tweets trying to blame another man — who supports Kavanaugh — for the alleged assault.

The Senate GOP had been in touch with Whelan about his theory, and though they were unaware of the details there was some excitement that Kavanaugh's name could be cleared this week. Whelan's attempt backfired spectacularly and he sought to apologize for it on Friday.

"I was very surprised to see it happen the way it did. I thought there was like, you know, a plan," said one Republican aide. "The timing and method of dispersing the information was way past underwhelming."

Republicans had been looking to Whelan as a credible defender of Kavanaugh's, given his central position in defending the president's nominees and advocating for a more conservative court. People working to confirm Kavanaugh said Whelan's credibility is now shot.

They may have been in on the deal with him, but they'll certainly let him hang for it alone.