Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who earlier indicated that he would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, has reversed his position. Flake now demands for another FBI investigation into Kavanaugh’s past. Apparently the six Kavanaugh has already endured over his long career in the federal government do not suffice to confirm a judge of heretofore unquestioned integrity.
What Flake hopes another FBI investigation will produce is anybody’s guess, as FBI investigations do not yield conclusions. Former Vice President Joe Biden put it succinctly 27 years ago, the last time Democrats made a circus and national disgrace out of the judicial confirmation process. “The next person who refers to an FBI report as being worth anything obviously doesn’t understand anything,” Biden explained. “FBI explicitly does not, in this case or any other case, reach a conclusion, period. Period.” So how would a seventh FBI investigation into the past of Brett Kavanaugh turn out?
The investigation might help to expose the multiple inconsistencies in Ford’s changing storyline. In her letter of July 30 to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ford explained that the party where her alleged assault took place included five people, “me and four others.” The crowd had transformed by the time Ford took a polygraph test to include “four boys and a couple of girls.” Depending on whether or not she counts herself in those “couple of girls,” the party of her later telling grew in size by twenty to forty percent. According to her therapist’s notes, Ford recalled four people in the room during her alleged assault. By the time Ford related her story to The Washington Post, the size of that group had dwindled by half.
In the story’s latest iteration, Ford names three boys and one girl present: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, Patrick Smyth, and Ford’s friend Leland Keyser. She also mentions “one other boy whose name I can’t recall.” Every person named by Ford has rejected her story.
“I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time,” said Kavanaugh.
“I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh,” said Smyth.
“I do not recall the events described by Dr. Ford in her testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today. I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes,” said Judge.
“Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford,” said Keyser’s attorney Howard Walsh.
As Joe Biden explained 27 years ago, the “FBI explicitly does not, in this case or any other case, reach a conclusion, period.” All an FBI investigation could yield are the testimonies of the people alleged to have been involved. He said/she said, or in this case she said/he said, he said, he said, she said. I’ve saved them the trouble. We have the alleged witnesses’ statements, and they all contradict Ford. Now hold the damn vote.
