Current Events > FBI Lacks White House Approval to Talk to Kavanaugh and Ford, Sources Say

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-03/fbi-said-to-lack-white-house-approval-to-talk-to-kavanaugh-ford

The FBI hasnt interviewed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford because it doesnt have clear authority from the White House to do so, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Instead, the White House has indicated to the FBI that testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford, who has accused him of attempting to rape her when they were in high school, before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is sufficient, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the sensitive matter.

The new evidence of constraints on the FBI probe came as Republican Senator Bob Corker told reporters the FBI is likely to give senators a stack of interview reports, probably later on Wednesday. He said senators were told in a GOP meeting that a vote on cutting off debate is likely on Friday to move toward a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh.

It wasnt immediately clear whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to force the issue and seek explicit approval from the White House to interview Ford and Kavanaugh. And it wasnt clear why the FBI hasnt yet talked to other people who have been recommended by lawyers or who have voluntarily come forward -- or if the bureau would need explicit approval to talk with them as well.

Confusion has now beset the investigation, fed by conflicting signals over what constraints have been placed on the bureau despite President Donald Trumps comment Monday that the FBI should interview anybody that they want, within reason.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that the lack of interviews with Ford, Kavanaugh and others raises serious concerns that this is not a credible investigation and begs the question: What other restrictions has the White House placed on the FBI?

The FBI declined to comment on the investigation or its timing.

White House View

A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the White House views the FBI inquiry as a supplemental background investigation, with its scope limited to the sex-assault allegations. That suggests its view is that agents dont need to go back over ground already covered by last weeks Senate Judiciary hearing or delve into allegations about Kavanaughs past drinking habits that may contradict his testimony.

Were going to allow the Senate to make the determination of the scope, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday. Officials have said the White House is relying on a request from the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee setting out the terms for the FBI inquiry.

On Monday, three days into the probe, the White House gave the FBI approval to interview more people, but the bureau is still constrained by an initial directive to investigate only credible allegations of sexual misconduct, the person said. Those restrictions are still limiting the number of people the bureau can interview and agents have only talked to a small number of individuals, the person said.

FBI field offices also lack a clear understanding of what they can do when people come forward voluntarily with information that could be relevant to the investigation, the person said.

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Wrays Documenting

FBI Director Christopher Wray is documenting whats happening behind the scenes in order to help ensure the bureaus activities in the politically charged investigation are captured and perhaps made public one day, the person said.

Among those who have been interviewed by the FBI are Kavanaughs high school friends Mark Judge, who Ford said witnessed and encouraged the attack on her, Chris Garrett and Patrick J. Smyth. Agents also have talked with Deborah Ramirez, who claims Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a drunken party when they were freshmen at Yale University.

The bureau hasnt interviewed Julie Swetnick, who accused Kavanaugh of taking part in efforts at parties during high school to get girls intoxicated so that groups of boys could have sex with them, according to her attorney Michael Avenatti. Kavanaugh has denied all of the allegations of sexual impropriety.

McConnell, Schumer

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had accurately predicted earlier that Democrats would say that the "supplemental background investigation for which my friends had clamored would suddenly become insufficient."

"Its time to put this embarrassing spectacle behind us," said McConnell, who reiterated his plan to hold at least a preliminary vote on Kavanaughs confirmation this week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, We have no idea if the FBI is doing a real investigation or simply preparing a fig leaf at the direction of the White House for Republicans to vote yes.

Regarding Wray, Schumer of New York said, "If hes being constrained by the White House, he has an obligation to let us know."

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Why the hell is it that no one, the FBI included, seems to know exactly what the FBI is and isn't investigating
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You mean that it was a farce and intentionally blockaded to have any meaningful impact, not that any Republican would have voted against him to begin with?

I'm shocked. Shocked I say. Well, not really.
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Scumbag republicans and trump acting scummy
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Oh wow so things are going exactly according to plan?
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"She doesn't know anything and has no evidence."
"So can we talk to her?"
"NO"
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"DO NOT talk to Swetnick."
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If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)
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spudger posted...

Scumbag republicans and trump acting scummy

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fake news
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Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.
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Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

You mean the 12 million times they have had a Benghazi investigation and come up with nothing.

oh.

and "BUT HILLARY!"
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sktgamer_13dude posted...

Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.

I don't support Trump and I condemn both of these occurrances.

But I guess some people live life only seeing one side of the fence.
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Bloodychess posted...

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.

I don't support Trump and I condemn both of these occurrances.

But I guess some people live life only seeing one side of the fence.

Somebody's about to win bingo
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eston posted...

Bloodychess posted...

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.

I don't support Trump and I condemn both of these occurrances.

But I guess some people live life only seeing one side of the fence.

Somebody's about to win bingo

Only square Im missing is southcoast posting completely out of context a picture of Dr Ford drinking a Coke
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Alpha218 posted...

eston posted...

Bloodychess posted...

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.

I don't support Trump and I condemn both of these occurrances.

But I guess some people live life only seeing one side of the fence.

Somebody's about to win bingo

Only square Im missing is southcoast posting completely out of context a picture of Dr Ford drinking a Coke

He's done that in several topica.
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eston posted...

Bloodychess posted...

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.

I don't support Trump and I condemn both of these occurrances.

But I guess some people live life only seeing one side of the fence.

Somebody's about to win bingo

Somebody's a loyal sheepie :)
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Bloodychess posted...

eston posted...

Bloodychess posted...

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Bloodychess posted...

If you had no problem with the DOJ stonewalling the FBI's investigation into Hillary, you'll have no problem with this. :)

I guess Trump supporters really can BUT HILLARY any topic.

I don't support Trump and I condemn both of these occurrances.

But I guess some people live life only seeing one side of the fence.

Somebody's about to win bingo

Somebody's a loyal sheepie :)

We know you are.
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"You support Trump"
"lolno"
"You're such a sheep"
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We get it, he's guilty no matter what. Can we stop pretending otherwise? It's been delayed weeks now, and every compromise leads to another "yea, but..." demand. No amount of lack of evidence is going to change your mind.
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TIL "weeks" = 6 days in sonicfan 's life.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

TIL "weeks" = 6 days in sonicfan 's life.

6 days since the last time they delayed it a week so they could have the Senate hearing which was already a week's Delay from the initial vote based on the accusation appearing in the first place.

The original vote was supposed to be scheduled around September 13th.

Edit: source
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/republicans-set-date-for-kavanaugh-vote-over-objections-from-democrats.html
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I bet you were feeling tortured over the delay for Garland if a handful of days bothers you.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

I bet you were feeling tortured over the delay for Garland if a handful of days bothers you.

"But Hillary!"

Guess what? I thought what happened to Garland was shitty, too, but you don't actually care about any of that. Just admit you don't give a shit whether he's guilty or not, and no amount of time passed where no hard evidence is found actually matters because your primary motivation is to block him at any cost. That you're happy ruining a potentially innocent man because you don't like his politics.
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s0nicfan posted...

Just admit you don't give a shit whether he's guilty or not, and no amount of time passed where no hard evidence is found actually matters because your primary motivation is to block him at any cost. That you're happy ruining a potentially innocent man because you don't like his politics.

I care that he's guilty, but the entire thing had been a sham since it started. He's not going to be prosecuted. He's not going to be fairly investigated. There'd nothing anyone can do to correct that. He's Trump's only nominee so he'll get in. There are other people who could serve, but Trump would rather delay the process and have the guy who will pardon him on the court than pick someone who won't.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

s0nicfan posted...

Just admit you don't give a shit whether he's guilty or not, and no amount of time passed where no hard evidence is found actually matters because your primary motivation is to block him at any cost. That you're happy ruining a potentially innocent man because you don't like his politics.

I care that he's guilty, but the entire thing had been a sham since it started. He's not going to be prosecuted. He's not going to be fairly investigated. There'd nothing anyone can do to correct that. He's Trump's only nominee so he'll get in. There are other people who could serve, but Trump would rather delay the process and have the guy who will pardon him on the court than pick someone who won't.

Whether people want to admit it or not, the fact of the matter is that it was an unwitnessed event that happened a very long time ago. The odds of ever getting a definitive answer are exceptionally slim.

9 people were interviewed, none of which corroborated her story. That's certainly isn't proof that he is innocent, however I suspect there's not a lot more they could have done.
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Coffeebeanz posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

s0nicfan posted...

Just admit you don't give a shit whether he's guilty or not, and no amount of time passed where no hard evidence is found actually matters because your primary motivation is to block him at any cost. That you're happy ruining a potentially innocent man because you don't like his politics.

I care that he's guilty, but the entire thing had been a sham since it started. He's not going to be prosecuted. He's not going to be fairly investigated. There'd nothing anyone can do to correct that. He's Trump's only nominee so he'll get in. There are other people who could serve, but Trump would rather delay the process and have the guy who will pardon him on the court than pick someone who won't.

Whether people want to admit it or not, the fact of the matter is that it was an unwitnessed event that happened a very long time ago. The odds of ever getting a definitive answer are exceptionally slim.

9 people were interviewed, none of which corroborated her story. That's certainly isn't proof that he is innocent, however I suspect there's not a lot more they could have done.

There were 3 witnesses. Kavanaugh, Ford, and Judge. But nevermind the evidence, let's just play politics while sitting on our hands so we can say we did some work today. Fuck law and order, this is 2018 America.
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Coffeebeanz posted...

9 people were interviewed, none of which corroborated her story. That's certainly isn't proof that he is innocent, however I suspect there's not a lot more they could have done.

There is, though. The FBI is an institution whose strength is having lots of time and resources. For reference, people familiar with federal investigations are saying that the Mueller investigation is moving way way faster than what usually happens. And it's been going on for more than a year. Given more time, they could do a lot more.

And are the testimonies of these 9 people public? Or on what basis are you saying they didn't corroborate her story? Several individuals have spoken out in media specifically because they think the FBI won't hear them, and they corroborate the story.
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