Feinstein Foiled: FBI Completely Rejects Letter She Hoped Would Bring Kavanaugh Down
When it came to Senate Judiciary Committee grandstanding, Democrat California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s mysterious claim that she was going to file a letter with the FBI about allegations she’d received about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was somehow upstaged. I know that sounds difficult, but consider the fact that, well, there was Spartacus!
However, if there was actually some hope of taking down Kavanaugh at this late hour, Feinstein’s letter would have made a great deal of sense. After all, if there was something so shadowy and untoward in the nominee’s past that Feinstein was willing to make it public, I mean, surely there must be something to it, right?
Well, I pretty much knew the answer was no because I’ve followed Dianne Feinstein’s career. But perhaps you — #TheResistance-minded you, with that blue wave emoji next to your name on Twitter — really believed this was where Kavanaugh became a Kava-no. (Oft-repeated dad jokes — I’ve got ’em.)
Alas, you probably should have shared my cynicism from the beginning:
FBI official on the Dianne Feinstein referral about Kavanaugh: "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."
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) September 13, 2018
The Washington Post’s Matt Zapotosky reported Thursday afternoon that the FBI wasn’t terribly impressed with whatever was in the referral.
“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,” the FBI said in a statement.
As Zapotosky notes, that’s about as close to putting it in the circular file as you can get.
Here's an explanation of what that means. The FBI backgrounds White House employees and nominees, & gives the White House a file on what they've found. But the FBI doesn't decide whether the person gets a job/nomination. The White House does that, w/ the info in the FBI file…
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) September 13, 2018
Remember Rob Porter? The FBI backgrounded him, and gave WH a report. Then they got more info, and, Chris Wray has said, "we passed that on as well.” https://t.co/4jzRm0fB7P
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) September 13, 2018
Same deal here. The FBI backgrounded Kavanaugh and gave White House a file. Then Feinstein gave them more info, and they passed that on as well…
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) September 13, 2018
Importantly, the FBI isn't doing a criminal investigation based on what Feinstein told them. The broad outline of the allegation, as I understand it, seems like it'd be in state/local authorities wheelhouse, if there even is a crime, and if the statute of limitations hasn't run.
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) September 13, 2018
That's not to say whatever happened or whatever was alleged isn't serious and deserving of attention and scrutiny. It's just to say the FBI has given the White House the info it might need for action. Because the White House, not the FBI, determines who it nominates.
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) September 13, 2018
“Importantly, the FBI isn’t doing a criminal investigation based on what Feinstein told them. The broad outline of the allegation, as I understand it, seems like it’d be in state/local authorities wheelhouse, if there even is a crime, and if the statute of limitations hasn’t run,” Zapotosky wrote.
“That’s not to say whatever happened or whatever was alleged isn’t serious and deserving of attention and scrutiny. It’s just to say the FBI has given the White House the info it might need for action. Because the White House, not the FBI, determines who it nominates.”
CNN says the allegation was apparently passed on to Democrat California Rep. Anna Eshoo by a constituent, who then passed it on to Feinstein. Feinstein had the information when she met with Kavanaugh in July but didn’t disclose it then.
“A source familiar with the allegations says they stem from a sexual encounter that occurred when Kavanaugh was about 17 years old. Another source familiar with the matter says the information concerns allegations of misconduct against Kavanaugh. Sources caution, however, that few have seen the actual letter Feinstein referred to the FBI,” CNN reported.
Of course, given the fact that Feinstein didn’t seem particularly keen in bringing it up back in July or during a point in the process where it actually could have made a difference, she obviously didn’t seem to think too much of it.
She did, however, use it to get every liberal’s hopes up and make some waves during the hearings. Excellent job on that, but the substantive nature of the allegations seems to be every bit as real as a right-thinking person would have thought it was.
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