22.04.08
The Trump White House also determined which witnesses the FBI should interview. 4,500 tips to the FBI went uninvestigated.
Washington DC – At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today received confirmation from FBI Director Christopher Wray that the FBI sent without investigation information the agency had gathered about Judge Senior Brett Kavanaugh in the Trump White House. The tips were gathered through the FBI’s existing tip line as part of a supplemental background investigation after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced during Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation process in 2018. Wray also confirmed that the White House Trump directed which witnesses the FBI was allowed to interview.
“You reviewed them for the purpose of separating the tip line traffic, but you didn’t investigate further into the ones related to Kavanaugh, did you?” Whitehouse asked about the more than 4,500 tips collected by the FBI.
Principal Wray replied, “Correct.”
When asked by the Whitehouse if the FBI received instructions from the Trump White House about who the FBI could question, Wray responded that the agency received instructions from the White House as it was the subject of the inquiry.
After the exchange, Whitehouse posted on Twitter, “Here’s a thought: Nothing prevented the Trump White House from using the FBI’s tip line information to direct the FBI’s investigation away by perceptive or supporting witnesses.”
For years since Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation, the Whitehouse has been pressing for answers from the FBI about its handling of information submitted through the tip line. The FBI has provided delayed and incomplete information in response to the senator’s surveillance investigations. At today’s hearing, Whitehouse pledged to submit a report to the Judiciary Committee outlining the FBI’s handling of the tip line. The FBI’s process for such investigations remains very important because the Senate relies on the results of FBI investigations to carry out its advisory and consenting duties on nominations.
See the full question here.
Whitehouse first questioned Director Wray about the insufficient additional background investigation at a Judiciary Committee hearing in July 2019. Whitehouse noted that the only conduit for information potentially relevant to the allegations was the tip line, the product of which apparently never pursued by the Bureau. During that hearing, Wray echoed Republican claims that the FBI conducted the investigation “by the book,” while asserting that additional background investigations are less rigorous than criminal and counterintelligence investigations.
The following month, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Whitehouse wrote to Wray asking for a full picture of how the FBI handled the additional Kavanaugh background investigation. They asked why the FBI failed to contact witnesses whose names were given to the FBI as having “very important” information; how involved the Trump White House was in narrowing the scope of the investigation; whether the FBI had used a tip line in previous investigations to manage incoming allegations and information about a nominee; and more.
Nearly two years later and after repeated follow-up requests, the FBI finally answered the senators’ questions. The June 2021 letter from the FBI’s Office of Congressional Affairs revealed new information about the Kavanaugh investigation, including that the tip line received “over 4,500 tips, including phone calls and electronic submissions.” By the FBI’s own account, it simply “provided all relevant advice” to Trump’s White House Counsel’s Office, the very office that had limited and directed the limited investigation.
Last summer, Whitehouse and a number of colleagues wrote to Director Wray requesting additional information on the FBI’s additional background investigation of Justice Kavanaugh.
“If the FBI was not authorized or did not follow up on any of the tips it received from the tip line, it is hard to see the point of having a tip line at all,” the senators wrote at the time.
Earlier this year, Whitehouse and his colleagues wrote again to Director Wray, Attorney General Garland and the White House Counsel’s Office seeking answers to the senators’ outstanding questions and providing a summary of what the Senators have learned to date. The senators have not yet received any response.
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