WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS THEY DID RESTRICT THE FBI’S INVESTIGATION

…Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader,  declaring that the FBI investigation was too limited

Only 9 people of an eligible 40 were interviewed in the FBI background check

Even though President Trump said in regard to Brett Kavanaugh, that the FBI needed to talk to whomever they needed to talk to, as usual, that’s anything but the truth.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said that the FBI agents had not talked to Kavanaugh.  The White House had confirmed that it would not allow the FBI to interview Dr. Blasey Ford, Judge Kavanaugh or any witnesses identified by another assault accuser, Deborah Ramirez.  This raises serious concerns that this was not a credible investigation.

President Trump has insisted publicly he was not curtailing the FBI probe.  But privately, the White House did restrict the FBI from delving deeply into Kavanaugh’s youthful drinking and exploring whether he had lied to Congress about his alcohol use.  This was according to White House officials, who of course, only spoke on the condition of anonymity.  Since all if the allegations against Kavanaugh occurred when he was allegedly drunk, why not look into his drinking issues? 

It is not abnormal in background checks for the White House to tell the bureau what the guidelines are for the checks.  Background checks, unlike criminal investigations, are done for the benefit of the White House so that those officials might have more information on people they want to nominate for critical government jobs.  Nothing is more critical than the Supreme Court.

The bureau’s inquiry seems to have only focused on the allegation by the California professor who claims Kavanaugh assaulted her decades ago at a party in Maryland, when both were high school students.  But there were two additional accusers....?

There were over 40 people that should have been interviewed.  However, it appears that due to the restrictions from the White House, only 10 people were contacted and only 9 of those were interviewed.

The investigation was highly unlikely to answer whether Kavanaugh was guilty of sexual misconduct decades ago.  But with the probe’s limited scope, dictated by the White House, along with a Friday deadline, that is likely to increase partisan tensions surrounding Kavanaugh’s nomination.  If it was so unlikely to provide an answer, what was the point of getting the FBI involved.  Sounds a lot like cover-up actions.

Even before the probe had ended, several people who claimed to have information that could be useful said they ended up buried in bureaucracy when they tried to get in touch with the FBI.  Democrats obviously cried foul over what they saw as inappropriate parameters that the White House seemed to impose on the bureau.

As usual, the White House and the FBI have treated each other warily throughout the process. Both sides were mindful that their written communications might one day be subject to subpoena, especially if the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in next month’s midterm elections.

Richard Oh, an emergency room physician who lived in Kavanaugh’s first-year residence hall, said he contacted the FBI office in Denver to describe overhearing someone tearfully telling another student about an incident when Kavanaugh was a student at Yale. The incident, which Oh described to the New Yorker, involved a fake penis and a male student exposing himself.

Mr. Oh said he was put on hold and waited so long that he eventually submitted information through the FBI website.

“So far I haven’t heard back,” On this Wednesday night, Oh said that was still the case.

Lawyer Alan Abramson said he represented a friend of Ramirez’s who was hoping to share an account of a conversation the two had in the early 1990s about an incident in her freshman year. The friend, Abramson said, was among those whose names Ramirez’s lawyer had passed to the FBI.

Abramson said that when the friend, whom he declined to identify, did not hear from the bureau, he called a supervisor, who referred him to a field office, which said it would pass his information on. “I have not heard from them yet, but I am hopeful that they will still contact me,” Abramson said in an email to The Post.

Kerry Berchem, who attended Yale a year after Kavanaugh, said she contacted the FBI about text messages she received from a close friend of Kavanaugh’s.  Messages that she believes suggest Kavanaugh or his friends might have been trying to pre-emptively counter any negative stories that could surface during his confirmation process.  Berchem expressed frustration at not being interviewed.

“I’m simply trying to have relevant investigators ask the right questions,” Berchem said in an interview with The Post. “If there was an anticipatory narrative to discredit or conceal the Ramirez allegations in July or September, then the Senate should know about it and take that into account.”  But that ain’t going to happen.

The reality is that if Kavanaugh is confirmed for the Supreme Court, just like it is with Clarence Thomas, there will always be an asterisk next to Judge Kavanaugh’s name.

Copyright G. Ater 2018