Former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday criticized the one-week deadline Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans set for the FBI to complete a background investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Still, Comey wrote in a New York Times op-ed, “the F.B.I. is up for this. It’s not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.”
“Unless limited in some way by the Trump administration,” Comey wrote, FBI agents “can speak to scores of people in a few days, if necessary.”
Various outlets have reported on the White House’s role setting strict boundaries on the FBI’s background probe of Kavanaugh, despite Trump’s and White House staffers’ assertions to the contrary.
Comey offered some insight into FBI agents’ potential angle on the background investigation: “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.”
While it’s “idiotic to put a shot clock on the F.B.I.,” Comey wrote, “it is better to give professionals seven days to find facts than have no professional investigation at all.”
