The FBI’s report on Kavanaugh is ready, but senators only get a single copy to read, in 1-hour shifts, under intense security – By Sinéad Baker (businessinsider.com) / Oct 4 2018
All 100 US senators will be able to read the FBI’s report on the sexual misconduct allegations about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh today.
But they will only be able to read from a single copy in one-hour shifts, and under intense security.
The FBI’s report — which has been repeatedly criticized by Democrats and classmates of Kavanaugh as being too limited in scope — will inform senators as they vote on Friday on whether to confirm Kavanaugh.
Chuck Grassley, the Republican Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said committee members had received the report by 4.30 a.m. on Thursday.
Supplemental FBI background file for Judge Kavanaugh has been received by @senjudiciary Ranking Member Feinstein & I have agreed to alternating EQUAL access for senators to study content from additional background info gathered by non-partisan FBI agents 1/3
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 4, 2018
Officials are taking steps to prevent the public from learning its contents.
Senators will read the report in a highly-secured Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) — a guarded room inside the Capitol building. They will do so in one-hour shifts based on their party.
Republicans will read for the first hour, starting at 8 a.m., before Democrats take over for an hour. The Republicans will then take over for the next hour, and so on, the Associated Press reported.
No copies will be made so senators will have to go physically to the room to learn about its contents. This is standard practice for FBI background reports.
The report is confidential, so they will be expected to not repeat what they learn. Given the intense interest in the document, the possibility of some kind of leak is high.
Grassley told reporters last week, that “none of that stuff’s public.”
“If you want people to be candid when they talk to the FBI, you ain’t going to make that public,” he said.
Some senators criticized the process. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told The Hill that it was a “bizarre” procedure that “doesn’t make any sense.”
“Get this — one copy! For the United States Senate,” he said “That’s what we were told. And we were also that we would be given one hour for the Dems, one hour for the Republicans. Alternating.
“We tried to reserve some time to read it. That is ridiculous,” Durbin added. “One copy?!”
Republican senators listen to Brett Kavanaugh as he denies sexual misconduct clams made against him. Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images
The FBI conducted the one-week background investigation into Kavanaugh after he and Dr Christine Blasey Ford testified in front on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In the hearings Ford said that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh denied the allegations.
The FBI has interviewed several of Kavanaugh’s classmates and other people of interest, including Deborah Ramirez, who accuses Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her when they were at Yale University.
But the investigation has been criticized by Democrats for its apparently limited scope. Former classmates of Kavanaugh say the FBI has ignored them even when they said they had evidence that could corroborate Ford’s testimony.
Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents another woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault, said the investigation is a “scam.”
Avenatti says he has “multiple witnesses that support the allegations and they are all prepared to be interviewed by the FBI” but that the FBI has not spoken to them.
We still have yet to hear anything from the FBI despite a new witness coming forward & submitting a declaration last night. We now have multiple witnesses that support the allegations and they are all prepared to be interviewed by the FBI. Trump’s “investigation” is a scam.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) October 3, 2018
https://www.businessinsider.com/brett-kavanaugh-fbi-report-ready-senators-read-1-hour-shifts-2018-10
