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The FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, speaking at a press briefing at the White House in August. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)
Devlin Barrett
A journalist specializing in national security and law enforcement
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before a Senate committee, likely to question him on the role played by White House officials in the Bureau's investigation into sexual assault complaints against the Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Wray is scheduled to appear alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a security threats hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
He is likely to ask several questions about the role of the FBI in the deadly political battle of Kavanaugh's appointment last week. After a California professor came forward and claimed that Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her while the two children were teenagers, the White House ordered a follow-up background check to verify the allegations.
[FBI probe of Kavanaugh sparks partisan fight]
The FBI questioned nine people in the investigation, and Democrats have accused White House officials of severely restricting the FBI's ability to know the truth.
Background checks are not like criminal investigations, which are conducted independently to decide whether a person should be charged with a crime. Rather, it is a survey conducted according to White House guidelines and specifications to answer specific questions about a candidate or candidate for a position.
Kavanaugh was confirmed by a largely partisan vote on Saturday. During a swearing-in ceremony at the White House on Monday, President Trump said that "what happened to the Kavanaugh family violates any notion of fairness, decency, and respect for the lawfulness ".
He told Kavanaugh, "Sir, under historical control, you have been proven innocent."
Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), One of the committee's legislators who will be questioning Wray, has sharply criticized the Senate's background investigation last week.
"It was not a search for the truth, it was not an investigation, it was an abdication of responsibility and duty," Harris said.
The lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford, the first of three women to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, wrote to Wray to explain their concerns, saying it was "inconceivable" that the FBI could conclude its investigation without further investigation. Interviewer or with Kavanaugh.
Wray is also likely to ask questions about Special Investigator Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump associates contributed to these efforts.
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