FBI: No corroboration for Kavanaugh assault claims
WASHINGTON – A pair of key Republican senators expressed satisfaction Thursday with a new FBI report, increasing the odds of Senate confirmation this weekend of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of three Republicans who had not indicated how they plan to vote, said Thursday that “it appears to be a very thorough investigation, but I’m going back later to personally read the interviews.”
Shortly afterward, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who requested the investigation, told reporters that “we’ve seen no additional corroborating information.”
Collins, Flake and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are the critical votes that could ensure Kavanaugh’s
ascension to the nation’s highest court.
On Thursday afternoon, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, a red-state Democrat whose vote Republicans were courting, told a television station in her state that she would vote no on Kavanaugh. That leaves Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia as the only Democrat still undecided on the nomination.
Murkowski told reporters that she did not yet know whether the FBI had been thorough enough in its investigation or spoken to enough witnesses. Asked whether she felt she had been given enough time to consider her decision before voting this weekend, Murkowski added: “I certainly hope so, yes.”
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday that the report included “no hint of misconduct.”
Senior Democrats, who called for the FBI probe, complained it was incomplete.
Neither Ford nor Kavanaugh were interviewed by the FBI for what senators said was a 46-page report that delayed the roiled confirmation process by a week. Lawyers for Kavanaugh’s accusers also criticized the probe, saying the FBI had declined to interview witnesses they suggested.
“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know,” Grassley said in a statement after being briefed on the FBI report by his staff. “It’s time to vote.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the committee, later told reporters that “the most notable part of this report is what’s not in it.”
FBI agents reached out to 10 witnesses – nine of whom were interviewed – and not one had corroborated the account of Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
“The president, the White House are firmly behind Brett Kavanaugh,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said during an appearance Thursday morning on CNN. “We believe that all the Senate’s questions have been addressed through this supplemental FBI investigation.”
In an earlier tweet, Shah said the White House is “fully confident” that the Senate will confirm Kava- naugh, whose nomination has been roiled by the allegations of three women about his behavior more than three decades ago.
Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., acknowledged that there was no corroboration for Ford’s charges in the FBI report.
The FBI interviewed three people who Ford said attended the gathering where she claimed she was assaulted, as well as two other friends of Kavanaugh’s who were listed on his calendar as attending a gathering on July 1 of the same summer that Ford said she believes the alleged assault occurred.