Trump orders FBI probe into Kavanaugh’s case

washington — US President Donald Trump on Friday ordered a new FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against his Supreme Court pick, as the Senate delayed a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to make way for the probe.

After a dramatic day-long hearing at which a university professor accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down and assaulting her at a party in the 1980s, the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier on Friday approved his nomination in a preliminary vote along party lines.

But committee chair Chuck Grassley, a Republican, then bowed to intense pressure from inside and outside Congress and announced he was asking Trump to order the new background review that “must be completed no later than one week from today”.

The Kavanaugh nomination has turned into a political firestorm ahead of November congressional elections — in which Republicans will battle to keep control of Congress — and is threatening to derail Trump’s push to get a conservative-minded majority on the top court ahead of the vote. —

We didn’t learn much from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing in the US. The evidence about whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Professor Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers remains what it was beforehand. The hearings only reinforced some things we already knew.

First: Ford’s accusation is the most serious of the ones against the judge. The Democrats mostly stayed away from The New Yorker magazine’s rumour-mongering concerning Deborah Ramirez, who professed no certainty about the events of the 1980s until very recently, and from Julie Swetnick’s lurid yet vague claims of a high-school gangrape ring. Because the later accusations are so thinly sourced, they can only very slightly raise the plausibility of the first one. The Democrats were right to acknowledge the point, if only tacitly.

Second: There remains no compelling evidence that Ford is making up her story to hurt Kavanaugh or Republicans. She gave every indication of being someone who believes what she is saying.

Third: While her allegation is serious, it remains uncorroborated. Memories, even of traumatic events, can be mistaken. By Ford’s own account, she told nobody about the alleged assault for decades. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The fact that nobody has made a similar allegation until the last two weeks doesn’t prove she’s wrong, nor does the fact that Kavanaugh has made firm denials that ought in principle to be falsifiable.

Fourth: We are unlikely ever to get evidence that provides a definitive answer about the accusation. There is no reason to think that FBI interviews of the named parties will yield different statements from them. The impulse to demand further investigation is understandable, but any such investigation would run up against the limits of time and memory.

Fifth: People are dug in on both sides. This was most apparent in the reactions to Kavanaugh’s opening statement. Those who regard him as guilty saw it as evidence that he would be an angry drunk, or lacks a judicial temperament, or feels entitled to get his way. Those who regard him as innocent saw it as evidence that he knew he had been unjustly accused. The divergent reactions illustrate the folly of expecting gut reactions to in-person testimony to resolve murky disputes of fact.

Sixth: Senators are more interested in questions of Senate procedure than most people are. The

Memories, even of traumatic events, can be mistaken. By Ford’s own account, she told nobody about the alleged assault for decades.

Republican-hired counsel’s focus on who had leaked Ford’s story, and whether she had been adequately informed of her options, initially struck me as peculiar. Whether or not the Democrats mishandled the allegation, after all, has no bearing on the more important question of whether it’s true. But that line of questioning may have had an effect on a few senators, who can now conclude that the allegation is being used for political purposes without having to say that Ford is a conscious part of that campaign.

One last thing: Kavanaugh’s confirmation is on a knife’s edge. Which, again, is something we knew before the hearing, too.

VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THESE COLUMNS DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF KHALEEJ TIMES