Secret FBI report shows no Kavanaugh misconduct, says top Republican senator
But Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee insisted the FBI probe was short-circuited and incomplete
A top Senate Republican said on Thursday that the confidential FBI report on charges that Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused women three decades ago “found no hint of misconduct” by the Supreme Court nominee.
After an explosive Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 27, FBI agents were tasked with performing a supplemental review to help senators determine whether Kavanaugh assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, a Palo Alto University professor, when they were high school students or exposed himself to Deborah Ramirez at a party when they were classmates at Yale University. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied those allegations.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley made his remarks – and urged his colleagues to confirm the conservative judge – in a written statement hours after the post-midnight delivery of the FBI document to Congress. With Kavanaugh’s uncertain prospects for approval depending in part on the decisions of five wavering senators, lawmakers began viewing the document in a secure room in the Capitol complex.
Watch: When Kavanaugh and Ford testified before Congress
“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know,” Grassley said, basing his comment on a briefing he said he’d received from committee aides. “This investigation found no hint of misconduct.”