Dems Accuse FBI of Ignoring Tips on Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh Amid 2018 Sex Assault Scandal

In October 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a US Supreme Court Associate Justice by a slim margin after he managed to survive allegations that he had sexually assaulted a former classmate.

A group of Democratic senators has claimed that new materials indicate the FBI's failure to fully investigate sexual misconduct allegations against US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ahead of his confirmation in 2018.

He was confirmed in October 2018, but his nomination was initially placed in jeopardy after his former classmate, Christine Blasey Ford, accused the now-justice of having sexually assaulted her when the pair were still in high school.

The seven senators, including Sheldon Whitehouse and Chris Coons, referred to last month's letter they received from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Assistant Director Jill Tyson, showing that the FBI obtained over 4,500 tips related to Kavanaugh without any apparent further action by investigators.

In a message to FBI Director Chris Wray on Thursday, the Democratic lawmakers argued that the admissions in the FBI assistant director's letter "corroborate and explain numerous credible accounts by individuals and firms that they had contacted the FBI with information 'highly relevant to … allegations' of sexual misconduct by Justice Kavanaugh, only to be ignored".

"If the FBI was not authorised to or did not follow up on any of the tips that it received from the tip line, it is difficult to understand the point of having a tip line at all", they added.

The remarks came after Tyson noted in the 30 June letter that the most "relevant" tips pertaining to Kavanaugh were passed to White House lawyers, declining, however, to elaborate on how the tips were treated.

"Over the course of six days, as part of several limited inquiries, the FBI interviewed ten individuals. Because the FBI was again acting in its role as an [investigative service provider] and not as a criminal investigative entity, the authorities, policies, and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply", she added.

Kavanaugh's Confirmation 

Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50-48 majority in October 2018, months after the Washington, DC-native was nominated by former US President Donald Trump.

The 56-year-old's nomination was initially put in jeopardy after his former classmate, Christine Blasey Ford, accused the now-associate justice of having sexually assaulted her in 1982, when the two were still in high school.

A subsequent FBI investigation into the allegations were heavily criticised by Democrats who saw the probe as a sham, since the bureau ostensibly failed to contact multiple witnesses who had corroborating evidence.

The FBI later launched a so-called "tip line" for individuals to relay any information regarding the Kavanaugh case, which was rejected by Democrats as ineffective.

"When allegations flowed in through that 'tip line', we received no explanation of how, or whether, those allegations were processed and evaluated", Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said.

A new book, meanwhile, claims that Donald Trump allegedly said that Kavanaugh was "totally disgraced" by the sexual assault allegations and that he "saved" the associate justice's life.

"There were so many others I could have appointed, and everyone wanted me to. Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him", the former US president said in an interview with Michael Wolff, for the book "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency", according to the Daily Mail.