FBI investigation chance to restore reputations
The FBI is on the cusp of redemption. It’s a rare moment in the bureau’s 110-year history.
The memory of a smug Peter Strzok, the FBI agent fired after his anti-Trump twitterstorm became a Category 5 political embarrassment, is still fresh on peoples’ minds. That’s why the bureau’s one-week investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is just the assignment the G-men needed.
As a former FBI agent told the Herald yesterday, “The American public will be watching.”
It’s not clear what the bureau can debunk or corroborate in the Kavanaugh case in one short week, but they sure can try to file a professional report.
Instead of being a political football, the agents can run with this assignment and possibly bring some sanity to the U.S. Senate process.
The agents need a legitimate chance to succeed. Keep the focus on Kavanaugh’s accusers and see if there are any holes in the story. Was he a blackout, binge drinker? If so, did he go too far with any woman?
Is Christine Blasey Ford’s story of a raunchy, possibly criminal sexual assault at a high school party in suburban Maryland in 1982 for real? Was Kavanaugh one of the alleged attackers that day?
What will Mark Judge, Kavanaugh’s high school friend that summer, reveal? Ford said he was in the room when the alleged sexual assault took place.
Agents will have one critical advantage this week — “United States Code, Section 1001” — that makes it a crime to lie to a federal agent, as an ex-agent pointed out in yesterday’s Herald story.
There’s something about a stint behind bars that can convince folks to sober up quickly. You can take it to the bank that FBI agents have already shared that detail with a few folks in Maryland and Ford’s home state of California already this weekend.
The bureau has the chance we’re sure they’ve been waiting for. James Comey is a distant memory. He’s out hawking his book. Strzok is an outcast. The agents and bosses who remain need to show they still have the investigative chops to get the job done.
About 20 million people watched the full Ford-Kavanaugh hearing, peaking at 7.5 million while the judge was giving his riveting defense of his reputation.
It was epic political theater. Both witnesses were fighting back tears and putting themselves before the court of public opinion and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Now the quiet federal sleuths have the ball. It’s up to them to run with it or fumble. Let’s hope they can deliver some form of sanity to this madness.