"FBI did 6 already."
Then it shouldn't be hard to re-open the last one. All it takes is a request from the WH. What are they hiding?
It took 2 days for the FBI to investigate Anita Hill's sexual harassment Nation Sep 20, 2018 6:26 PM EDT
The attorney for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school, said Thursday it remains her “strong preference” that “a full investigation” by the FBI occur before she testifies before Congress.
President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have rejected the idea. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who sits on the Judiciary Committee overseeing Kavanaugh’s nomination, tweeted: “The FBI does not do investigations like this. The responsibility falls to us.”
But 27 years ago, when Anita Hill accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, the FBI investigated her claims, interviewed witnesses and completed its report in just two days.
Here’s some background on how this kind of FBI investigation usually works.
Can the FBI investigate Ford’s claims against Kavanaugh?
Yes, but only if the bureau is asked to do so by the White House. This wouldn’t be a traditional criminal investigation, but rather a continuation of Kavanaugh’s background check, which the FBI did to help the Trump administration assess Kavanaugh’s fitness for the Supreme Court. (Kavanaugh has undergone a total of six FBI background checks over the years for work in the White House and his current position as federal judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals).
Back when Hill’s allegations against Thomas first appeared, White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray requested the FBI reopen Thomas’ background check. “We did ask the FBI to do this quickly because we didn’t know at the time what the surrounding issues were,” Gray said in an interview.
Despite now claiming this isn’t a job for the bureau, back in 1991, Hatch was in fact very supportive of the FBI’s probe into Hill’s claims. At the time he describedit as “the very right thing to do. It was the appropriate thing to do.” |
