AS SENATORS REVIEW SUPPLEMENTAL FBI REPORTS
by Sharon Rondeau
(Oct. 4, 2018) — Fox News has been told that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will be holding a press conference at 11:00 a.m. EDT on the now-concluded supplemental FBI background check into Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Trump in July.
The report has been delivered to the Senate, and that body’s 100 members will have individual, private access to it beginning this morning, Fox’s Griff Jenkins reported at 8:00 a.m. Thursday.
Senate Judiciary Committee members will have the first access.
On Wednesday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed for cloture on Kavanaugh’s vote, which was opened up to debate unanimously by the caucus on Friday night, after Kavanaugh received an affirmative confirmation vote in the Judiciary Committee along party lines, 11-10. A four-day period must ensue following cloture, bringing a possible vote to Saturday or Sunday.
On Monday, McConnell had promised a vote “this week.”
The additional FBI check was requested by the committee, then the president, stemming from accusations made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, former Kavanaugh Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez, and alleged former government employee Julie Swetnick.
The committee specifically asked that Ford and Ramirez’s claims be investigated, with Swetnick’s claims reportedly found to be unreliable. Swetnick changed some of her claims in an interview aired Monday by MSNBC. On Wednesday, her attorney, Michael Avenatti, claimed that a new “declaration” supporting Swetnick’s allegations was issued, although it is unclear to whom. According to Judiciary Committee, neither Swetnick nor Avenatti responded to multiple requests to speak with committee investigators.
The FBI report is said to consist of “raw” data in the form of “302s,” which are written summaries by FBI agents of interviews conducted in the course of an investigation.
Because of his long public-service career, including 12 years as a federal judge, Kavanaugh had already undergone six FBI background checks.
Committee Republicans have condemned their Democrat counterparts for leaking Ford’s sexual-assault claim after she requested anonymity in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and creating a “circus” atmosphere surrounding Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Both Kavanaugh and Ford’s public testimony last Thursday were found by many to be convincing, although inconsistencies in Ford’s statements have been pointed to by Trump and Rachel Mitchell, an experienced sex-crimes prosecutor hired by committee Republicans to question her in their stead.
Polarized committee members have accused one another of lying on the Senate floor this week.
The unfair treatment many Americans believe Kavanaugh received has reportedly energized Republican voters for the midterms, Fox reported, in what politicos have dubbed “the Brett bounce.”
Update, 2:36 p.m. EDT: The presser was moved to 2:15 p.m. and is about to begin. It will include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.