The White House limited the scope of the most recent FBI background investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the bureau’s chief confirmed Wednesday.
FBI Director Christopher Wray made the disclosure during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing meant to be focused on “threats” to the United States.
“Was the FBI given full discretion to, or was the scope of the investigation limited by, the direction you received from the White House?” asked Sen. Kamala Harris.
The California Democrat also sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which passed Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court to the full Senate late last month. Harris was one of Kavanaugh’s fiercest opponents.
“Our supplemental update to the previous background investigation was limited in scope and that is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways,” Wray said, explaining that background check investigations are not like criminal ones.
[Also read: It’s not over: Democrats vow to investigate Kavanaugh]
.@Senkamalaharris asks about FBI #Kavanaugh investigation.
FBI Director Wray: “Our investigation here, our supplemental update to the previous background investigation, was limited in scope and that that is consistent with the standard process for such investigations…” pic.twitter.com/XBdvtqQzaA
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 10, 2018
The FBI questioned nine people as part of the follow-up investigation into an allegation by Christine Blasey Ford, who said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers in high school. Kavanaugh, who denies multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, was confirmed by a mostly partisan vote Saturday after the FBI finished its investigation Wednesday.
Wray said that the communications between the FBI and White House were done through the FBI Security Division and the White House Office of Security, but declined to say if White House counsel Don McGahn was part of those communications.
“I can’t speak to what anybody throughout the organization might have received instructions on,” he said.
When asked who made the determination that neither Ford nor Kavanaugh would be interviewed, he again said the probe was limited.
“As is standard, the investigation was very specific in scope, limited in scope and that is the usual process,” Wray said, adding, “And my folks have assured me that the usual process was followed.”
Wray also declined to say if the FBI is actively looking into if Kavanaugh lied to Congress during his multiple days of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“That’s not something I can discuss here,” he said.
On Sept. 28, Trump agreed to a request from Senate Republicans and ordered the FBI open conduct a new background investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh.
In ordering the investigation, he said that it would be “supplemental” and would “be limited in scope and completed in less than a week,” as the Republican Senate leadership had requested.
It was Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who made the initial demand for the investigation, and that it would be “limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there.”
