The parties are battling over the scope of a new FBI investigation that could have monumental consequences for the government.<\/b>
\nAs Democrats and Republicans in Congress dig in for what could be the final chapter of Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s tumultuous confirmation battle, both parties are pushing hard on behalf of an FBI investigation. Just not the same one.
Democrats, newly emboldened by a tenuous alliance forged with Sen. Jeff Flake, are banking on federal agents\u2019 uncovering evidence to corroborate the accounts of several women who have leveled allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh over the past month.
Republicans \u2014 gobsmacked by the eleventh-hour swerve from their Arizona colleague after navigating a near-fatal week for the president\u2019s Supreme Court nominee \u2014 are grappling with the unexpected investigation by calling for a separate inquiry into Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and their leader, Dianne Feinstein of California.
The stakes couldn\u2019t be higher in the coming week on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers in \u201cthe world\u2019s greatest deliberative body\u201d are steeling for several days of intense debate over President Donald Trump\u2019s besieged nominee that could not only shape the Supreme Court for decades to come, but also portend control of Congress and the very nature and scope of government in a deeply fractured political environment being shaped, in part, by the #MeToo movement.
Central to both parties\u2019 strategies is a White House torn between the executive branch\u2019s oversight responsibilities and the political impulses of a president determined to seat his second justice ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections.
After Flake banded with Judiciary Committee Democrats on Friday in demanding an investigation of sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford ahead of a full floor vote on Kavanaugh, Trump bowed, authorizing the bureau to reopen its background check into the federal judge.
But a Saturday report by NBC News, citing anonymous sources, indicated that the White House was limiting the scope of the FBI\u2019s inquiry, and Trump throughout the weekend has sought to demonize Senate Democrats and goad Republicans seeking an investigation of Feinstein.
At a rally in West Virginia on Saturday, Trump lamented \u201cthe meanness\u201d and \u201cthe anger\u201d he said Democrats employed in the hope of quashing Kavanaugh\u2019s nomination.
\u201cThe entire nation has witnessed the shameless conduct of the Democrat Party,\u201d Trump told the crowd at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling. \u201cThey\u2019re willing to throw away every standard of decency, justice, fairness and due process to get their way.\u201d
Republicans have reserved the bulk of their rage for Feinstein, California\u2019s senior senator, who they allege withheld Ford\u2019s allegations against Kavanaugh for months in order to maximize the political effect on his confirmation fight.
\u201cRemember her answer, \u2018Did you leak the document?\u2019\u201d Trump said Saturday, before going on to pantomime Feinstein\u2019s response to the accusation and mock her \u201creally bad body language.\u201d
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S. C.), who has emerged as Kavanaugh\u2019s fiercest congressional defender, announced his intention on Sunday to call for an FBI investigation into Democrats\u2019 handling of Ford\u2019s allegations and their maneuvers during Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation hearings \u2014 including whether Democrats leaked Ford\u2019s confidential letter detailing her account, or recommended that Ford take on Debra Katz, a civil rights lawyer and Trump critic, to represent her.
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do a wholesale, full-scale investigation of what I think was a despicable process to deter from happening again,\u201d Graham said in an interview on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) issued a similar threat Sunday.
\u201cDianne Feinstein and her staff is going to face an investigation for why they leaked that,\u201d Cotton said in an interview on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace The Nation,\u00a0\u00bb claiming that Feinstein and the panel\u2019s Democrats \u201cbetrayed\u201d Ford by not sharing her letter with Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and other Republicans sooner.
But journalist Ryan Grim, who first reported on the letter Ford sent to lawmakers, has stated on Twitter that Feinstein\u2019s staff did not leak the letter or news of its existence to The Intercept, Grim\u2019s publication. Graham also said Sunday that he accepted Feinstein\u2019s denial but did not necessarily believe her staff was innocent.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been sounding the alarm over a White House that they fear has been inappropriately constraining the FBI as it seeks to chase down details from Kavanaugh\u2019s time in high school and college.
\u201cI\u2019m very concerned about this because the White House should not be allowed to micromanage an FBI investigation,\u201d Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Sunday in an interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d
Sen. Mazie Keiko Hirono (D-Hawaii) echoed that message.
\u201cTo limit the FBI as to the scope and who they\u2019re going to question, that really \u2014 I wanted to use the word farce, but that\u2019s not the kind of investigation that all of us are expecting the FBI to conduct,\u201d she said in an interview on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d
In a tweet late Saturday evening, Trump moved to rebut reports of meddling by the West Wing in the FBI\u2019s work.
\u201cNBC News incorrectly reported (as usual) that I was limiting the FBI investigation of Judge Kavanaugh, and witnesses, only to certain people,\u201d the president wrote online. \u201cActually, I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion. Please correct your reporting!\u201d
Despite those claims of interference, the bureau\u2019s investigation appears to be broadening beyond just Ford\u2019s accusations. Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct during their time at Yale University in the 1980s, confirmed Saturday through her attorney that she was cooperating with the FBI in its inquiry.
But Julie Swetnick, Kavanaugh\u2019s third accuser, has not yet been contacted by the FBI, her attorney, Michael Avenatti, told POLITICO on Saturday. Avenatti is also the lawyer for the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against the president.
Swetnick has alleged that Kavanaugh was present at house parties in the Washington area in the early 1980s where women were plied unknowingly with alcohol and drugs. She claims she was raped by multiple boys at one such gathering.
\u201cIf they do not conduct an investigation into my client\u2019s claims, it will cast significant doubt as to the legitimacy of the investigation as a whole,\u201d Avenatti said. \u201cYou can\u2019t possibly do an appropriate investigation without talking with her.\u201d
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, in an interview Sunday on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union,\u201d emphasized that the FBI\u2019s Kavanaugh inquiry would be \u201climited in scope\u201d and was \u201cnot meant to be a fishing expedition.\u201d But she could not confirm whether the White House counsel, Don McGahn, had clamped down on the interviews agents could conduct.
\u201cI have not talked to him about it, let me make clear,\u201d Conway said. \u201cBut he would not \u2014 we\u2019re not trying to interfere. It\u2019s the president who is saying, \u2018Go ahead.\u2019\u201d
Before departing for West Virginia on Saturday, Trump said FBI officials had \u201cfree rein\u201d to pursue whatever leads they desire to uncover the truth, according to a press pool report.
\u201cThey can do whatever they have to do, whatever it is that they do,\u201d the president said. \u201cThey\u2019ll be doing things we have never even thought of. And hopefully, at the conclusion, everything will be fine.\u201d
But by Sunday afternoon, the president was back on Twitter, criticizing Democrats\u2019 demands for a more thorough investigation of the allegations against the man who could help enshrine conservative jurisprudence for a generation.
\u201cWow! Just starting to hear the Democrats, who are only thinking Obstruct and Delay, are starting to put out the word that the \u2018time\u2019 and \u2018scope\u2019 of FBI looking into Judge Kavanaugh and witnesses is not enough. Hello!\u201d the president wrote online, appending a preview of the drama sure to play out this week in Washington and ensnare all three branches of the federal government: \u201cFor them, it will never be enough \u2014 stay tuned and watch!\u201d<\/p>\n

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