After reports surfaced that the White House had created strict limits into what the FBI could investigate in its supplemental background look into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, the White House supposedly relented, giving the FBI broader scope in the investigation. But Bloomberg is now reporting that it "isn’t doing its own deep dive into his alcohol use or whether he committed perjury when he testified last week, according to a person familiar with the matter."
The source tells Bloomberg that the FBI has not been asked by the White House to "do a full-throttle probe of Kavanaugh's use of alcohol or whether he intentionally gave false testimony to the Senate committee," and has also been told to finish by Friday, limiting the amount of time agents would have to do follow up in anything they might discover. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is warning that it "would be a big mistake to put handcuffs on the FBI. […] They have the ability to investigate the whole thing. It’s not a question of whether he drank when was a youngster. It’s a question of was he truthful with the committee." But apparently, the FBI won't be delving into that.
One of his accusers, Julie Swetnick, has not been contacted by the FBI, nor has her lawyer Michael Avenatti. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has called for her to be included in the investigation. Additionally, as of Tuesday midday, Christine Blasey Ford had not been interviewed nor had her lawyers been contacted by the FBI. Thus far, apparently only Kavanaugh friend and potential witness Mark Judge has been interviewed fully.
McConnell is pushing to have the investigation end Wednesday, so he can end debate on the nomination and have the next key cloture vote on Friday in order to set up an early vote next week, according to Politico. That would mean an extremely truncated investigation, on top of the limitations that it's already operating under.
That, in turn, would be a big challenge to Republican Sens. Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, whose votes and reputations are riding on a real and complete investigation. McConnell is playing chicken with them, but ultimately they've got the power to determine how this goes forward. McConnell doesn't have their votes now. If he did he'd have already called this vote. They can just keep holding out.
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