FBI accused of ‘fake’ Brett Kavanaugh background investigation

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A democratic lawmaker has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation of possibly “faking” the 2018 background check into allegations against supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh. In a letter to Mr Garland last week, the senator accused the agency of carrying out a “politically-constrained and perhaps fake” investigation into Mr Kavanaugh ahead of his Senate confirmation, The Guardian first reported. He added: “But in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI.” The letter then criticises the use of a “tip line” as an entry point for “additional allegations and other potential corroborating evidence.” The senator claims it appears that no review had been taken of information that flowed through the tip line and senators “could get no explanation of the tip line procedures.” “This ‘tip line’ appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster,” the letter says. “Senators’ questions for the record from that July 2019 oversight hearing remain unanswered today,” the senator writes, adding: “Such stonewalling does not inspire confidence in the integrity of the investigation.” The lawmaker argues that if standard procedures were violated and the agency conducted a “fake” investigation, a congressional oversight would be required to “understand how, why, and at whose behest and with whose knowledge or connivance.” “It cannot and should not be the policy of the FBI to not follow up on serious allegations of misconduct during background check investigations,” Mr Whitehouse concludes.