Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, today released a report detailing disturbing shortcomings in the supplemental background investigation conducted after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during the 2018 confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Whitehouse’s report is the culmination of a six-year-long investigation hindered by executive branch obstruction, particularly during the Trump Administration.
Whitehouse released the following statement on the report:
“In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging, for however long it took, and not give up or move on from the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh. A full, proper investigation is the bare minimum that victims who come forward – like Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez – deserve. This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation.
“The lack of FBI investigative standards helped the Trump White House thwart meaningful investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, denying Senators information needed to fulfill their constitutional duties. The FBI must create real protocols so Senators and the American people get real answers – not manufactured misdirection – the next time serious questions about a nominee emerge late in the confirmation process.”
President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2018. After the Senate Judiciary Committee’s regular hearings on his nomination in early September 2018, senators learned of accusations by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. After Dr. Ford came forward, further allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh emerged. None of the accusations were uncovered during the FBI’s “full-field” background investigation in Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The Judiciary Committee held an additional hearing on September 27, 2018, where Ford and Kavanaugh both testified. After this hearing, the Judiciary Committee asked for a supplemental background investigation to resolve the new allegations against Kavanaugh. The supplemental background investigation raised immediate concerns from Democratic senators that the FBI’s review had been curtailed by the Trump White House.
The four key findings of Whitehouse’s years-long investigation into this episode are:
- The supplemental background investigation was completely controlled by the Trump White House. The FBI was never given “free rein” to conduct a thorough, complete investigation. Statements to the contrary from former President Trump and White House and Department of Justice officials were false.
- Trump White House and FBI assertions that the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation was conducted “by the book” according to standard FBI procedures were false and misleading, failing to disclose that there are no standard procedures for supplemental background investigations. Instead, FBI practice, which the Trump Administration never disclosed, requires step-by-step instructions from the White House. This practice may be appropriate for handling many routine, minor questions that can arise after an initial background investigation, but it was uniquely inappropriate for investigating the serious, high-profile allegations against Kavanaugh.
- The investigation was directed by the Trump White House to pursue only first-hand evidence and not corroborating evidence. Senate Republicans then cited the absence of corroborating evidence to justify confirming Kavanaugh.
- The FBI’s public “tip line” investigation was a fake. No tip was ever investigated; Kavanaugh-related tips were delivered straight to the Trump White House without FBI investigation. Indeed, the Trump White House could have used tip line information to steer FBI investigators away from derogatory evidence.
These major failings in the FBI’s supplemental background investigation made it unworthy of reliance by the Senate for advice and consent. This must never reoccur, so the report recommends that better standards be established for FBI supplemental background investigations—particularly for situations where major misconduct allegations come to light after an initial background investigation is complete.
Senator Whitehouse and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats spent almost six years seeking information about these failures from the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the White House, via written correspondence, live and written questioning during committee hearings, and meetings with executive branch officials. The senators’ inquiries were blocked by obstinate executive noncompliance. During the Trump Administration, the executive branch provided no information to this investigation, while providing a fast lane for Crossfire Hurricane information to Senate Republicans. Even when cooperation improved during the Biden Administration, senators struggled to secure complete and timely answers to oversight requests.
The full report is available here.
