Tag: background

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FBI Forwaded Tip Line Complaints About Kavanaugh To White House Counsel Without Investigation

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FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 08/04/22. One of the most interesting moments in the hearing, especially for Supreme Court enthusiasts like Yours Truly, came during the questioning by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse(D-RI). Senator Whitehouse’s questions focused on the supplemental background investigation (B.I.), the FBI conducted on then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a topic that has been the subject of much speculation on social media.

Senator Whitehouse has been in a battle with FBI Director Wray since 2019, trying to get to the bottom of whether the FBI thoroughly investigated the numerous tips it received from the public regarding then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

This intro by Senator Whitehouse is important for establishing the context for the ensuing questioning: “As you know, we are now entering the fourth year of a frustrating saga that began with an August 2019 letter from me and Senator Coons, regarding the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation, and I’d like to try to get that matter wrapped up.”

Senator Whitehouse(video at 0:23): “First, is it true that after [Justice] Kavanaugh-related tips were separated from the regular tip line traffic, they were forwarded to White House counsel without investigation?”

Director Wray(0:47): “When it comes to the tip line, we wanted to make sure that the White House had all the information we have, so when the hundreds of calls started coming in, we gathered those up, reviewed them, and provided them to the White House.”

At that point Senator Whitehouse interjected, “Without investigation”, to which Director Wray responded, “We reviewed them and then provided them to the White House.”

Sen. Whitehouse:“You reviewed them for the purposes of separating them from the tip line traffic, but did not further investigate the ones that related to Kavanaugh, correct?”

Director Wray:“Correct.”

Senator Whitehouse: “Is it also true that in that supplemental B.I., the FBI took directions from the White House as to whom the FBI would question, and even what questions the FBI could ask?”

Director Wray:“It is true that consistent with the longstanding process that we have had going all the way back to at least the Bush administration, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, and continue to follow currently under the Biden administration, that in a limited supplemental B.I., we take direction from the requesting entity which in this case, was the White House, as to what follow up they want. That’s the direction we followed, that’s the direction we’ve consistently followed throughout the decades, frankly.”

Director Wray went on to add, “It is true as to the ‘who’, I’m not sure as I sit here, whether it’s also true as to the ‘what questions’, but it is true as to the ‘who’ we interviewed.” In other words Director Wray agreed that in a supplemental B.I., it is true that the White House tells the FBI who to question, he’s just not sure yet, whether the White House also tells the FBI what questions to ask the people they question.

Senator Whitehouse:“By the way, is it true that even today we have not been provided by the FBI, it’s written tip line procedures?”

Director Wray: “Senator, I know that we have provided a lot of information to the committee and to you. I would have to check on that specific item. I know there is some information that you have requested that is not our call to provide, that has to do with interaction, communication with the White House.”

There’s no other way to interpret Director Wray’s responses to Senator Whitehouse’s questions other than (I’ll be happy to stand corrected of course), during the highly contentious Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the complaints the FBI received through its tip line regarding Kavanaugh, were not investigated by the FBI, but instead, forwarded to the White House Counsel. The White House Counsel then told the FBI who among the complainants, the FBI was to question, and possibly, even what questions to ask them.

Folks, no reasonable person presented with this information can ever conclude that the supplemental background investigation into Kavanaugh was “thorough”, as had been portrayed by Senate Republicans during his confirmation hearings. Director Wray argues that this is the same supplemental B.I. process the FBI has used for decades, but as we all know, none of Kavanaugh’s predecessors faced as many serious complaints about their character, requiring a thorough independent investigation. So, while Director Wray raises a valid point regarding consistent FBI practice, reasonable people will agree that Kavanaugh’s case was markedly different, and called for a thorough investigation by the FBI.

Bottom line folks, we’ll wait for Senator Whitehouse’s final report on this issue. As he indicated to Director Wray, he’ll give the FBI one more month to comply with his information requests, after which he will produce a final report on the Kavanaugh supplemental B.I. saga. One only hopes that if Senator Whitehouse’s investigation reveals that there were serious credible allegations against Kavanaugh that went uninvestigated, then an independent investigation will be launched into them immediately.

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Rep Veronica Escobar Slams Gov Abbott For Creating “Wild West” Environment That Enabled Uvalde Shooting

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Rep Veronica Escobar(D-TX) appeared on MSNBC Reports w/Andrea Mitchell (07/18/22) to discuss the recently released report by the Texas Senate on the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Rep Escobar made a very important point on the show, telling host Andrea Mitchell that the deadly “wild west” environment created by Texas elected officials, beginning with Governor Greg Abbott, is partly to blame for the horrific shooting in Uvalde.

This point is largely missed by the mainstream media when reporting about the mass shooting in Uvalde, but it cannot be restated enough.

Rep Escobar(video at 1:00):“I think the report is important, but I also think we need to zoom out a little bit because the leadership void goes far beyond law enforcement. And what the report did not touch on[are]2 things, (1) the Governor, who is the highest ranking elected official, the chief elected official of the state and (2) the state legislature that makes open carry the law of the land in Texas so that anyone can get access to a gun without any training and really a loosening of gun laws that was historic. It is so important that these reports and that this analysis look at what happened on the ground that day, but we also have to look at the context in Texas, the environment that has been created by Republicans, who want to create a wild west sort of environment  in a state, that has led us to be…one of the most deadliest states for mass shootings.”

Rep Escobar went on to specifically address Gov Abbott’s failures:“He’s been pretty silent. He’s very eager to point the finger at others, really on any situation including Uvalde and he, as the highest-ranking elected official in the state of Texas, I have yet to hear the Governor accept any responsibility, or bring forward any ideas for meaningful change. He is literally someone who has only used his position to make Texas less safe for its citizens and uses our resources for political stunts.”

She went on to add that the political stunt Gov Abbott is pulling at the southern border aka “Operation Lone Star” has siphoned much needed funds away from mental health services and public schools, both of which are still poorly funded in Texas compared to other states.

Bottom line folks, Texas is, and has been a solid red state for quite some time now. It is important however for people who don’t live in the Lone Star state, or keep up with its politics, to know that none of Governor Abbott’s Republican predecessors created the deadly gun violence environment in the state like Gov Abbott and his allies have. Rep Escobar is absolutely spot on, that any meaningful discussion of gun violence in the Lone Star state has to take into account the “wild west” environment created by Gov Abbott and his Texas Republican allies.

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How Senators Collins & Flake Perpetrated The “No Corroboration” Fraud On Americans

U.S. Senators Jeff Flake(AZ) & Susan Collins(ME)

While most of the mainstream media was preoccupied with Senator Susan Collins’ decision to vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, NBC News Heidi Przybyla (one of Yours Truly’s MSM faves) went on All in with Chris Hayes and dropped a major bombshell that may prove disastrous to Kavanaugh, and indeed Senator Collins, even after he is seated at the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Heidi Przybyla, there are text messages that have been obtained by NBC news which suggest that Kavanaugh himself may have played a part in covering up evidence from his classmates who may have corroborated Debbie Ramirez’s claims against him.Specifically, one of the texts show a witness freaking out because she doesn’t want the media/public to know that Kavanaugh reached out to her.

Think about that folks. There is electronic evidence that Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh himself, not his surrogate, was reaching out to potential witnesses/corroborators (his former Yale classmates) trying to conjure up a counter narrative to the Debbie Ramirez allegations. Even more troubling, Heidi Przybyla says some of Kavanaugh’s Yale classmates reached out to the FBI in an effort to provide more information but were turned away. Simply put, no reasonable person presented with this information would ever have concluded, as Senators Collins & Flake did, that there were no corroborators to the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh or that the FBI background investigation was “thorough”, or “comprehensive”.

The full All In With Chris Hayes Segment is available here but the relevant clip is below

So you say, “But @Emolclause, what does that have to do with Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake?” Here’s why. The FBI supplemental background investigation was ordered by President Trump in large part to address the lingering sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh that had been brought by Dr Christine Blasey Ford, Debbie Ramirez and others. Both Sen Flake and Collins later based their decision to vote for Kavanaugh on the fact that the FBI investigation never corroborated the sexual assault allegations against him.

In essence, both Flake and Collins had already decided to vote YES on Kavanaugh. They just could not do it given the cloud of the sexual assault allegations against him, hence the Trump’s FBI supplemental investigation. Put another way, Trump’s FBI supplemental background probe was a sham from the beginning specifically designed to give cover to Sen Collins and Sen Flake’s predetermined YES vote on Kavanaugh. It was never meant to gather any corroborating information on the sexual assault allegations.


Therefore when both Sen Collins and Sen Flake came out in support of Kavanaugh because there was “no corroborating” information they literally perpetrated one of the biggest and most consequential frauds on the American public ever–the aforementioned “no corroboration” fraud. Luckily some serious journalists like NBC News’ Heidi Przybyla are digging around and hopefully soon will get to the bottom of this “no corroboration” fraud.

The entire Sen Collins Speech on Kavanaugh is available here but the relevant “corroboration” speech is below.

Yours Truly alluded to this “no corroboration” fraud in an earlier Tweet.

To be clear, Senator Collins offered more than the “no corroboration” argument to support her YES vote on Kavanaugh in her 3PM nationally televised speech. She did not make any forceful arguments in her 3 PM speech and you need not take Yours Truly’s word for it. Just look at how MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell tore apart the key arguments in Sen Collins’speech, specifically her presumption of innocence argument.

Lawrence O’ Donnell correctly pointed out that when sexual impropriety allegations were made against former Dem Senator Al Franken, Senator Collins was quick to call for his resignation, even before an investigation was launched. O’Donnell also tore up Sen Collins’ totally frivolous, even laughable argument that Kavanaugh and Mark Judge should be believed because they denied the sexual assault allegations under penalty of perjury. Yeah, Senator Collins literally said in her speech that she believed Kavanaugh because he denied the allegations under oath–how ridiculous is that?

The entire Last Word segment is available here but the relevant clip is below

Bottom line Collins’ biggest argument that there were no corroboration is a big fat lie. The truth, as Heidi Przybyla reports, is that the FBI never reached out to people who might have corroborated both Dr Ford and Ramirez’s stories and both Senators Collins and Flake knew that. Even more troubling, there are text messages showing that Kavanaugh himself was reaching out to his former Yale classmates trying to create a counter narrative for Ramirez’s allegations, which by itself should disqualify him from Judgeship in any court, let alone the U.S. Supreme Court. They may succeed in getting Kavanaugh into the U.S. Supreme Court in the short run for their partisan political interests, but in the long run as the truth about Kavanaugh will inevitably continue to trickle out, the fraud Collins & Flake have perpetrated on Americans must be exposed and should forever form their legacies–the two U.S. Senators who perpetrated one of the biggest and most consequential frauds on the American public–one that rewarded an undeserving nominee with a lifetime Supreme Court appointment. History will be very harsh to both Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake, and deservedly so.

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