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.”
Kavanagh provably 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
And too many more things to list
Ford provably lied about:
Seems like Comey would be in as good a position as anyone to offer a reliable comment on this topic.
It does not appear that Comey was aware of NBC’s scoop before writing the op ed.
“they can speak to scores of people in a few days”
≠
“a list of approved interviewees” (four of them)
The rest of those scores of interviews might have come closer to settling this question. As it is, it’s hard to see why the FBI would take even a week: if you can’t follow up on any leads, then just interview the four people this weekend and write up the report, I guess. Box checked, no risk of actually finding anything important.
I think they FBI could find away around sloppily phrased and stupid “restrictions” imposed by WH. Assuming such restrictions are legal in the first place, which they probably are not.
Is there any discovery which, if made within Trump’s limitations, would allow the FBI to then go outside Trump’s limitations?