Lead counsel hits new Dem effort to 'delegitimize' Supreme Court amid senator's report on Kavanaugh probe
The former chief nominations counsel for Republicans during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation is crying foul on a report from Democrats alleging the Trump administration constrained the FBI's probe.
A new report led by Judiciary committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is "nonsense" and "the continuation of the Democrats' lawfare against Justice Brett Kavanaugh," according to the chief counsel on nominations for Republicans at the time.
"We followed the normal procedures for a Supreme Court nominee to do his background investigation," said Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "And the Senate does its own investigation."
Davis is also founder and president of the Article III Project.
Whitehouse is among a number of other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, including Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who have made significant efforts to investigate the personal relationships of Supreme Court justices, namely Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, as well as call on them to recuse from high-profile cases.
Critics have claimed the inquiries and demands made by the senators are in an effort to undermine the conservative justices and the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.
Whitehouse released a 32-page report on Tuesday, revealing their conclusions from a six-year investigation into the FBI's probe of Kavanaugh when he was a Supreme Court justice nominee.
According to the report, Judiciary Committee Democrat members Whitehouse, now-Chairman Durbin, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and then-Sens. Patrick Leahy and Kamala Harris sought information on the FBI investigation following Kavanaugh's ultimate confirmation.
In a statement, Whitehouse said, "In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging, for however long it took, and not give up or move on from Senate Republicans and the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh. A full, proper investigation is the bare minimum that victims who come forward – like Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez – deserve. This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation."
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"The lack of FBI investigative standards helped the Trump White House thwart meaningful investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, denying Senators information needed to fulfill their constitutional duties. The FBI must create real protocols so Senators and the American people get real answers – not manufactured misdirection – the next time serious questions about a nominee emerge late in the confirmation process."
The report alleged that the FBI's routine screening of the nominee on behalf of then-President Donald Trump was "flawed and incomplete," the White House prevented "the FBI from interviewing relevant witnesses and following up on tips," and that the administration "refused to authorize basic investigatory steps that might have uncovered information corroborating the allegations."
The Democrats noted in the document that Trump had told reporters at the time that the FBI was "all over" the probe of Kavanaugh, adding, "They have been all over it already. They have free rein to do whatever they have to do."
Davis told Fox News Digital in an interview, "It's just a silly premise that these senators think that the FBI was going to solve crimes in this particular nomination. That's not their role here."
He also noted that the provision of the report to the Senate for their review was a courtesy that began with President Clinton.
"The Senate is not supposed to just rely on the FBI. The FBI does not work for the Senate. The FBI works for the president," he said.
"They're trying to figure out whether the nominee has the character and fitness to serve," he emphasized.
Davis also recalled that the investigation into Kavanaugh was re-opened on the request of a few Republican senators and additional witnesses were interviewed. Those Republicans were apparently satisfied with the additional interviews and voted to confirm.
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Davis claimed that Democrats in the Senate "refused to cooperate" during Kavanaugh's confirmation procedure.
"We had witnesses come in for live testimony, including Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh," he pointed out. "They came in for live testimony. And the Senate Democrats are saying that the FBI didn't investigate all the tips that came in."
"There were thousands and thousands and thousands of tips that came in. Those tips were printed. Every one of those tips was printed, and it was delivered to the Senate for every senator to review," he explained.
Not only could every senator access all the tips, Davis claimed, but they could have also asked for an investigation or "done the investigation themselves with their own staff."
Additionally, he remarked that "almost every one of those tips were utter garbage."
"An alien crash-landed in my house and said that Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused me," he joked about the described nonsensical tips.
The report is "a pathetic attempt by Sheldon Whitehouse to try to intimidate and cowl the Supreme Court justices before they may have to decide on crucial election cases, with the election coming up," Davis said.
"Maybe Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had one too many Mai Tais at his all-White beach club when he concocted this latest conspiracy theory," he added.
A spokesperson for Grassley, who was Judiciary chairman at the time, said in a statement, "This report doesn’t offer any legitimate, substantive new ground. It’s important to remember, it comes from the same office that strongly pressed claims by a man who alleged he saw Justice Kavanaugh attack a woman on a boat. When committee investigators looked into the matter, the man admitted he lied and was subsequently subject to criminal referral for false statements and obstruction of Congress."
"It’s also important to note the FBI’s confidential investigation not only failed to corroborate any of the allegations against Justice Kavanaugh, including Ms. Ford’s, it undermined them. Senator Whitehouse might recall saying he, himself, was ‘satisfied’ with the FBI’s investigation – all these facts, combined with the timing of this report just weeks ahead of the election, should raise questions about its validity and motive."
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Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, "This is yet another attempt to delegitimize the Supreme Court and pave the way for Kamala Harris to pack the Court with Radical-Left Judges. Everyone knows Brett Kavanaugh was unfairly slandered and smeared with lies in a Democrat-led hoax to derail his appointment to the Court that ultimately failed."
Republican strategist John Feehery told Fox News Digital that, if anything, Blasey Ford's allegations should be investigated, including "who she was funded by."
"It's all part of the same tactic, which is to delegitimize the Supreme Court," he said of the report and several past investigations of conservative justices and demands Democrat lawmakers have made.
The FBI declined to comment on the report. However, the FBI provided a statement on the procedure for nominee screenings. "The FBI, in its role as an investigative service provider, responds to requests from the Office of White House Counsel and other government entities to conduct background investigations of candidates for certain positions. In these investigations, the FBI follows a long-standing, established process through which the scope of the investigation is limited to what is requested. We have consistently followed that process for decades and did so for the Kavanaugh inquiry. The FBI does not have the independent authority to expand the scope of a supplemental background investigation outside the requesting agency’s parameters. This is different from criminal investigations where the FBI has broad authority, granted by the Attorney General Guidelines, to make investigative decisions," the statement said.
Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Whitehouse, Durbin and the Supreme Court did not provide comments to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
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