Either Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has the goods on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, or she has gone full Harry Reid.
My money is on the latter.
The ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee released a tortuously cryptic statement Thursday claiming her office has referred a Kavanaugh-related matter to federal law enforcement officials.
“I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” the statement said.
It added, “That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities.”
Feinstein reportedly learned of the Kavanaugh allegations from a letter sent to her by Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif. Feinstein also reportedly first learned of the allegations in July. If true, it means she has been sitting on this supposedly very serious matter for the better part of seven weeks.
[White House: Feinstein is trying for an ’11th hour’ delay of Kavanaugh]
Thursday’s statement comes just hours after the Intercept published a report, titled “Dianne Feinstein Withholding Brett Kavanaugh Document From Fellow Judiciary Committee Democrats.” That story claimed the Feinstein letter may or may not describe “an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school.”
The New York Times and the Washington Post reported Thursday that the letter alleges an episode of “sexual misconduct” between Kavanaugh and a woman when they were both in high school.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said separately in remarks to BuzzFeed News that, “This matter has been referred to the FBI for investigation.”
BuzzFeed News said it contacted “the woman believed to be the subject of the letter.” The anonymous woman declined to comment. BuzzFeed News also contacted noted #MeToo attorney Debra Katz, who is believed to be representing the woman believed to be the subject of the letter (isn’t this fun?). Katz declined to comment, saying, “There’s nothing to say.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been made aware of Feinstein’s referral, a committee spokesman said Thursday.
“At this time, he has not seen the letter in question, and is respecting the request for confidentiality,” George Hartmann, the spokesman, said in an emailed statement. “There’s no plan to change the committee’s consideration of Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.”
This Feinstein story sounds so ominous. It also sounds like complete garbage.
Democrats don’t have the votes to oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation. That’s why they’ve been trying for weeks to sink his chances with lurid innuendo, ridiculous, partisan theatrics and outright lies. What Feinstein is doing here is more of the same.
The strategy is to spur headlines like this one from ThinkProgress: “Brett Kavanaugh has a mysterious #MeToo problem.”
“Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh may have committed a very serious crime — possibly even a sex crime. Or maybe he didn’t. That’s what we just learned from an extraordinarily vague press statement by Sen. Dianne Feinstein,” wrote “justice” editor Ian Millhiser. That’s a hell of a thing to publish without any hard facts.
The strategy is to create a situation where Democrats can go on television and argue the U.S. Senate can’t possibly vote to confirm a nominee who has just been referred to the FBI — for something that happened when he was in high school.
It would be a scandal! A threat to our very democracy! Etc., etc.
Never mind what’s in the letter. Never mind that Feinstein’s statement is written in such a way as to suggest the absolute worst without saying anything. Never mind that this announcement was clearly calculated for maximum scandal (she can announce the federal referral, but nothing else? Come on).
Feinstein’s aim is to contribute to the cloud of innuendo that Democrats have tried to build up around Kavanaugh, hoping it will scare GOP moderates away from a “yea” vote.
Whether Feinstein’s letter is as serious as advertised is yet to be seen. Kavanaugh may have actually done something terrible when he was in high school!
Then again, the fact that the letter reportedly pertains to a thing the judge may or may not have done while in high school suggest very loudly that this entire episode is a desperate and damned disgraceful political stunt.
