Washington, DC – Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former United States Attorney, outlined the proper elements of an FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Senate has delayed a vote on the Kavanaugh nomination to allow the FBI to conduct such an investigation. Whitehouse’s statement is below.
“As a former United States Attorney familiar with investigations, and given the short timeframe, I would expect the following elements of any FBI investigation:
- Adequate staffing, with teams working in parallel to investigate separate allegations, not sequentially.
- Support from the Judiciary Committee for rapid immunity and subpoena decisions as needed.
- Corroboration efforts, including efforts to investigate relevant contemporaneous evidence of penchant for drunkenness and inappropriate treatment of women, particularly where specifically related to incidents under investigation.
- Review of witnesses’ veracity, including Kavanaugh’s sworn committee testimony, as it relates to incidents under investigation or contemporaneous penchant for drunken misbehavior involving women.
- Reliance on trauma-informed forensic interviews and related trauma-informed investigative techniques pursuant to sexual assault investigations best practices.
- The thoroughness, initiative, professionalism and diligence for which the FBI is known.”
