The Federal Bureau of Investigation has declined to investigate Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over allegations sent to them by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has declined to investigate Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over allegations sent to them by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Matt Zapotosky of The Washington Post quoted an FBI official as saying: “Upon receipt of the information on the night of September 12, we included it as part of Judge Kavanaugh’s background file, as per the standard process.” He also reported that the agency was not opening a criminal investigation into what Kavanaugh may or may not have done as a high school student.
Zapotosky explained the inclusion of the allegations in Kavanaugh’s background file in a subsequent tweet.
Kavanaugh received a background check, which was provided to the White House. Then Feinstein gave them this information (that she had allegedly received back in July, but wouldn’t share with even her fellow Democrats until after all questions and interviews with Kavanaugh were conducted), and they passed the info along to the White House as well.
Zapotosky ends his thread by suggesting that whatever Kavanaugh was accused of may have been serious or deserved scrutiny, but that the FBI isn’t investigating and just passed the info to the White House in case it wants to act, which is most likely won’t.
In an article for the Post, reporters Seung Min Kim and Elise Viebeck echoed Zapotosky, writing that « the FBI does not now plan to launch a criminal investigation of the matter, which would normally be handled by local authorities, if it was within the statute of limitations. »
We still don’t know the specifics of the allegation, but unsubstantiated rumors suggest it has something to do with something of a sexual nature while Kavanaugh was in high school. Had this been a serious allegation, one would suspect Feinstein wouldn’t have sat on it for months and would have brought it up during public or private interviews with Kavanaugh.
