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John Wagner
National journalist heads up the political press team at The Post newspaper
Senators prepared to consult the FBI's full report on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was announced by the Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning for a new dramatic theater day on Capitol Hill.
During the night, the White House said it was "confident" that the Senate will confirm the candidacy of President Trump, whose confirmation process was tainted by allegations of sexual misconduct by three women while he was in high school and college.
In anticipation of the report's arrival, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Held a key vote on Wednesday night to advance Kavanaugh's nomination for Friday. Pending this vote, senators will rush into a secure facility on Capitol Hill to review the FBI 's sensitive report that the bureau drafted, citing allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.
[In 2:30 a.m. tweets, White House says FBI report supports Kavanaugh confirmation]
Earlier in the morning, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said that he had agreed, along with the highest representative of the committee, "to alternate between the two." EQUAL access to senators to study the content from additional information collected by non-partisan agents of the FBI. "
Raj Shah, White House press secretary, said the report, described as hasty and incomplete by the Democrats, was "the latest addition to the most comprehensive review of a Supreme Court candidate." of history, which includes many auditions, multiple interviews 1200 questions for the record and more than half a million pages of documents. "
In three tweets, the first of which was released Thursday at 2:24 pm, Shah said lawmakers would have had "ample time" to review the results of the latest survey before Friday's vote.
The FBI report will be available in a Sensitive Compartment Information Center, or SCIF, at the Capitol Visitor Center, a secure room designed to allow senators to examine confidential or confidential documents, two Senate officials said. Only one physical copy of the report will be available, and only for Senators and 10 committee staff authorized to view the documents.
Both parties will have access to the FBI report in turn, according to a senior Senate official. For example, Republicans will spend an hour with the report from 8 am to 9 pm Thursday, and then Democrats will have an hour with the report. It will run all day Thursday and possibly Friday, staff members simultaneously informing senators.
But even before the report was formally sent to the Senate, Christine Blasey Ford's lawyers – the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault – criticized what they saw as an incomplete investigation by the FBI.
"A further investigation into the FBI's history that did not include an interview with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford – or witnesses who corroborate her testimony – can not be described as an investigation," her legal team said in a statement. . "We are deeply disappointed that after the huge sacrifice that she made in introducing herself, FBI investigators were not interested in finding the truth."
The FBI's reopened investigation was prompted by the last reservations expressed by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) about the idea of a full Senate vote without a fresh review of Ford's charges and charges. other "credible" defendants.
Although the White House gave permission to the FBI to expand its review, it kept the office under strict deadlines.
In addition, the investigation focused on the story of Ford, the research psychologist, alleging that a drunken drunk Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her while she was a high school student in the suburbs from Washington.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the White House had prevented the FBI from scrutinizing the candidate's consumption habits, as well as any discrepancies between his drinking in his youth and his account in Congress.
On Thursday, the focus will be on the reactions of three Republicans whose votes are considered determinant for Kavanaugh's fate: Flake, Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).
On Wednesday, all three challenged the fact that Trump was making fun of Ford the night before at a political rally in Mississippi that made his fans laugh.
Besides Flake, Collins and Murkowski, the Democrats Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) have not yet announced their vote.
While trying to gather the voices from his side, McConnell also targeted the Democrats, accusing them of trying to "move the goals" in the fight for Kavanaugh's confirmation by suggesting that Friday would be too early for a key vote on him .
Issac Stanley-Becker and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
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