James Comey has an opinion piece in the NYTimes today about the FBI’s investigation into Brett Kavanaugh.
And he hits all the right notes.
James Comey: The F.B.I. Can Do This
Despite limitations and partisan attacks, the bureau can find out a lot about the Kavanaugh accusations in a week.
By James Comey
The F.B.I. is back in the middle of it…..
…...the F.B.I. is now being asked to investigate, on a seven-day clock, sexual assaults that the president says never happened, that some senators have decried as a sham cooked up to derail a Supreme Court nominee, and that other senators believe beyond all doubt were committed by the nominee.
If truth were the only goal, there would be no clock, and the investigation wouldn’t have been sought after the Senate Judiciary Committee already endorsed the nominee. Instead, it seems that the Republican goal is to be able to say there was an investigation and it didn’t change their view, while the Democrats hope for incriminating evidence to derail the nominee.
Although the process is deeply flawed, and apparently designed to thwart the fact-gathering process,
the F.B.I. is up for this. It’s not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.
F.B.I. agents are experts at interviewing people and quickly dispatching leads to their colleagues around the world to follow with additional interviews. Unless limited in some way by the Trump administration, they can speak to scores of people in a few days, if necessary.
[...]
Yes, the alleged incident occurred 36 years ago. But F.B.I. agents know time has very little to do with memory. They know every married person remembers the weather on their wedding day, no matter how long ago. Significance drives memory. They also know that little lies point to bigger lies. They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook are a flashing signal to dig deeper.
Once they start interviewing, every witness knows the consequences. It is one thing to have your lawyer submit a statement on your behalf. It is a very different thing to sit across from two F.B.I. special agents and answer their relentless questions.
[...]
Agents will summarize every witness encounter in a detailed report called a 302, and then synthesize all the interviews into an executive summary for the White House.
[,,,]
It is idiotic to put a shot clock on the F.B.I. But it is better to give professionals seven days to find facts than have no professional investigation at all. When the week is up, one team (and maybe both) will be angry at the F.B.I. The president will condemn the bureau for being a corrupt nest of Clinton-lovers if they turn up bad facts. Maybe Democrats will similarly condemn agents as Trumpists if they don’t. As strange as it sounds, there is freedom in being totally screwed. Agents can just do their work. Find facts. Speak truth to power.
Despite all the lies and all the attacks, there really are people who just want to figure out what’s true. The F.B.I. is full of them.
Sunday, Sep 30, 2018 · 10:00:20 PM +00:00 · AlyoshaKaramazov
A nice list of some of Brett’s lies (from TPM)
Kavanagh probably lied about:
The drinking age in Maryland
Not having any legacy connections at Yale
That Blasey Ford was "not in his social circle" when she dated a good friend of his
The meaning of words in his yearbook
That there were never social gatherings on weekdays