Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Kavanaugh drama in homestretch
‘Thorough’ FBI report boosts GOP’s hopes for Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation
WASHINGTON — A pair of undeclared Republican senators accepted a confidential new FBI report into sex-abuse allegations against Brett Kavanaugh Thursday as “thorough,” bolstering GOP hopes for confirmation as the Senate plunged toward showdown votes on President Donald Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee.
One of the senators hinted he was open to supporting Kavanaugh as party leaders pushed for winning results in a preliminary vote on Friday and a final Senate roll call by this weekend in the long, emotional battle over Trump’s nomination.
Six days after Trump ordered the FBI to scrutinize the allegations — which Kavanaugh has denied — leading GOP lawmakers briefed on the agency’s confidential document all reached the same conclusion: There was no verification of the women’s past claims and nothing new.
Democrats complained that the investigation was shoddy, omitting interviews with numerous potential witnesses, and accused the White House of limiting the FBI’s leeway. Those not interviewed in the reopened background investigation included Kavanaugh himself and Christine Blasey Ford, who ignited the furor by alleging he’d molested her in a locked room at a
1982 gathering of high school students.
A week after a televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which Kavanaugh and Ford transfixed the nation, the Capitol campus remained a stew of tension. A hefty police presence added an air of anxiety, as did thousands of anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators who gathered outside the Supreme Court and in a Senate office building.
U.S. Capitol Police said about 300 protesters were arrested for refusing to leave the corridors of Senate office buildings. Videos posted on social media showed comedian Amy Schumer, who spoke earlier at an anti-Kavanaugh rally, apparently being arrested. Model Emily Ratajkowski said on Twitter that she was also detained.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., set course for his chamber to hold a crucial test vote Friday and, should that succeed, final confirmation on Saturday.
“What we know for sure is the FBI report did not corroborate any of the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh,” McConnell told reporters about the document, which was sent to Congress overnight. On the Senate floor, he called the accusations “uncorroborated mud.”
Earlier, Sen. Jeff Flake, RAriz., one of the publicly undecided Republicans, told reporters that “we’ve seen no additional corroborating information” about the claims against the 53-year-old conservative jurist and said the investigation had been comprehensive.
A second undeclared Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, also expressed satisfaction with the probe, calling it “a very thorough investigation” and paid two visits to the off-limits room where the document was being displayed to lawmakers. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she was “still reviewing” her decision.
While GOP leaders were not saying they’d nailed down the support needed, two “yes” votes from among Flake, Collins and Murkowski would ensure Kavanaugh’s confirmation because every other Republican was poised to back him. Republicans have a narrow 51-49 Senate majority, and Vice President Mike Pence will be available to cast a tie-breaking vote.
The trio of GOP moderates, leery of three women’s claims of alcohol-fueled sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, had refused to let his nomination proceed last week until Trump ordered the FBI probe.
Underscoring the hardening partisan lines, one of the two undecided Democratic senators said she’d oppose Kavanaugh. North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who faces a difficult re-election race next month, cited concerns about his “past conduct” and said she felt his heated attacks on Democrats during last week’s Judiciary Committee hearing raised questions about his “current temperament, honesty and impartiality.”
West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, the other undeclared Democrat, spent time looking at the report and said he would resume reading it Friday.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said while her party had agreed to a weeklong FBI probe with a finite scope, “We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands.”
Democrats also objected to a statement by committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who said the investigation “found no hint of misconduct.” The Judiciary panel’s 10 Democrats said in a statement that based on their briefing and study of the document, “That is not true.”
Initially, the FBI was asked to interview four witnesses. Three — Mark Judge, Peter Smyth and Leland Keyser — were at the gathering where Ford said Kavanaugh pushed her onto a bed and groped at her. The fourth, Deborah Ramirez, had separately alleged that Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her when both were students at Yale.
The limited breadth, though, sparked significant controversy, and the White House soon permitted the FBI to expand its investigation — albeit only modestly. The White House, for example, barred a broad look at Kavanaugh’s youthful drinking and whether he had misled the Senate in testifying about it, the people familiar with the process said. Some Republican senators insisted Thursday that the FBI was allowed to interview those the agency deemed appropriate.
In a rare instance of a retired Supreme Court justice weighing in on a pending nomination, The Palm Beach Post quoted John Paul Stevens as saying Kavanaugh shouldn’t be confirmed because of his potential political bias.
Stevens, 98, has praised Kavanaugh before, but in remarks to a group of retirees in Florida, said: “I feel his performance in the hearings ultimately changed my mind.”