Bitter Senate fights to confirm Kavanaugh plunges deeper into chaos over letter

The Senate's bitter fight to confirm Brett M. Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court plunged into deeper chaos on Thursday as a senior Democrat revealed he had sent back information about President Trump's FBI bid.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) Issued a brief cryptic statement about the referral, but the lack of detail has only sparked questions. The information came in a letter that describes an episode of alleged sexual misconduct involving Kavanaugh, 53, while he was in high school, according to a familiar person.

The White House has decried the move as a last-minute desperate campaign to demolish a qualified candidate, and the FBI does not plan to investigate this case, which broke out publicly as Democrats complained about it. Kavanaugh's incapacity.

The abrupt disclosure came as an intense political battle over Kavanaugh's confirmation continued, with a handful of moderate senators deciding his fate by deliberating on how they would vote for a candidate who could shift the balance of the court for generations.

Senate Republicans said Kavanaugh's appointment was on track, but Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have not announced their positions and are opposed to Kavanaugh. Collins said she had outstanding issues and was planning to talk to Kavanaugh on Friday. In Alaska, the largest Amerindian organization in the state asked Murkowski to reject the candidate.

The Democrats have asked Kavanaugh more and more questions as they face a furious Liberal base urging senators to do everything in their power to cast their candidacy – sometimes without public proof of their demands. .

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) asked Kavanaugh several questions about the game, including whether the judge had previously reported a loss of gambling to the Internal Revenue Service and whether Kavanaugh had requested treatment for an addiction The candidate answered no to both questions.

"All our questions were based on documents produced at the committee, information relayed by law enforcement or media inquiries about which we became aware," Whitehouse said.

But Thursday's drama was centered on the mysterious letter.

The committee's Democrats first heard the contents of the letter at a meeting at the last minute on Wednesday night. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), Two people close to the file, said that this letter had been sent to Feinstein, the senior official of the Judiciary Committee.

"This person strongly requested confidentiality, refused to come forward or pursue the case, and I honored that decision," Feinstein said in a statement. "However, I sent the case back to the federal investigating authorities."

Emma Crisci, a spokesperson for Eshoo, said she could not comment because of a privacy policy involving constituent records.

Other Senate Democrats on the committee – who have been furious with the GOP for weeks about how they proceeded to appoint Kavanaugh – refused to comment on the content of the letter and the resulting uncertainty. But privately, some Democrats had questioned Feinstein about the contents of the letter as rumors about his existence had emerged over the past week, prompting the last-minute meeting outside the Senate.

The White House immediately postponed development by attempting to derail Kavanaugh's confirmation, which Senate Republicans plan to complete by October 1, the first day of the court's term. The Judiciary Committee of the Senate decided Thursday to vote on the appointment on September 20.

"Throughout his confirmation process, Justice Kavanaugh had 65 meetings with Senators – including with Senator Feinstein -, testified for over 30 hours and answered more than 2,000 questions in public," he said. White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told me. "It was only on the eve of his confirmation that Senator Feinstein or anyone raised the specter of new information about him."

Kupec noted that the FBI had "carefully and repeatedly" controlled Mr. Kavanaugh over his 25-year career in the public service, including Kenneth Starr's independent board office at the George W. Bush White House. DC Court of Appeal

The spokeswoman also accused the Senate minority leader, Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Of having arranged the latest developments surrounding the letter. But an aide from Schumer said the senator did not have access to the letter.

The White House has not returned a request for specific comment on the allegation of sexual misconduct.

Several officials confirmed that the letter had been sent to the FBI. But the office does not intend to launch a criminal investigation, according to a person familiar with the issue – an investigation that would normally be handled by local authorities if it was subject to the statute of limitations.

Instead, the FBI sent the material to the White House as an update to Kavanaugh's background check, which has already been done, the person said. This initiative is similar to what the office did when allegations were made against former White House aide Rob Porter, who resigned earlier this year after charges emerged. of spousal violence by two ex-wives.

Once the White House received FBI material, which she did early Thursday afternoon, she sent the information to the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to an administration official.

"When we received the information on the night of September 12, we included it in Judge Kavanaugh's briefing package, according to the standard process," said an FBI spokesman. The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.

The allegation of sexual misconduct in the letter was first reported by The New York Times. The existence of the letter has been reported for the first time by the information website The Intercept. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), said Thursday morning that he had not seen the letter, so he could not comment on its contents.

The controversy appeared in the final stages of Kavanaugh's confirmation struggle, as Democrats tried to delay the process.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Intending to introduce Senate votes for the last week of September. Feinstein's disclosure did not change the schedule, as a Grassley spokesperson confirmed that the committee's vote would proceed as planned.

[Senate committee delays vote on Kavanaugh nomination until next week]

In a room where Republicans have a majority of 51 to 49, Kavanaugh will be confirmed until he loses more than one vote in the GOP. Although Collins and Murkowski did not announce their decisions, they did not show publicly that they had a hard time getting a "yes" on his confirmation.

When asked if she wanted to see the letter that sparked controversy on Thursday, Collins declined to answer, saying that she would no longer make public comments until she was ready to announce her position. .

But his office has faced a storm of calls from opponents of Kavanaugh, demonstrations sometimes profane and vulgar, denounced by Republican senators and some Democrats. On Thursday, a three-foot-long cardboard cut from the male genitalia, accompanied by blasphemy, was sent to the Collins office in Washington, according to his staff.

Collins had already been the target of a million-dollar campaign of anti-Kavanaugh activists, who had promised to give the money to a Collins challenger in his re-election in 2020 if she had voted to confirm it. . A Collins spokeswoman has described it as an attempt at extortion.

Meanwhile, in an obvious attempt to influence Murkowski, the influential Alaska Native Federation stated that Kavanaugh's legal views on Indian rights were "troubling" and harmed

While she was entering the Judiciary Committee's office on Thursday, Murkowski said she had not heard from her about Kavanaugh.

Among the Democrats, three moderate senators, considered the most likely to vote in favor of Kavanaugh, had yet to decide. Senators Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) And Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) continued to deliberate Thursday and Manchin wanted a second meeting with Kavanaugh.

Other Democrats – including Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) – announced their opposition to Kavanaugh on Thursday. Leahy also stated that he supported how Feinstein handled the disclosure of sensitive information. "She is not a person to try to mess with anyone," Leahy said. "She always did her job, she always does it with integrity."

John Cornyn (R-Texas), the majority of the Senate majority, rejected the controversy on Twitter.

"Let me get straight to the point: it's [a] statement on [a] secret letter about a secret affair and an unidentified person. Agreed, "he tweeted sarcastically. "I will add: the FBI has already played and reported on a background investigation of the candidate and this has been made available to all senators on the Judiciary Committee."

Matt Zapotosky, Robert Barnes and Amy Brittain contributed to this report.

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