Surprise: Brett Kavanaugh Wasn’t Actually Vetted Before Being Given a Lifetime SCOTUS Appointment

In October 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, making history on several fronts. He was the first justice to sit on the court who’d used a Senate hearing to reference his love of beer not once but about 30 times. He was the first person to sit on the court who’d specifically explained to the lawmakers assembled before him: “We drank beer. My friends and I. Boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer.” He was the first person to be asked by a sitting senator if he’d ever blacked out from drinking, and he was the first person to answer that question not by saying “No” or “Once many years ago,” but by asking, “Have you?” He was the first person to read aloud from a calendar entry that said, “Tobin’s House—Workout/Go to Timmy’s for [brewskis] w/ Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, Squi.” He was the first person, not just among potential Supreme Court justices but in the history of mankind, to openly weep about calendars in general.

Incredibly, though, not one of those things—not the crying over calendars or the love letters to brewskis—was the most troubling part of Kavanaugh being made one of the most powerful people in the country. Considerably more concerning were the allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by at least four women. At the time the public got the sense that the “supplemental investigation” being conducted by the FBI in the wake of the accusations, which Kavanaugh denied, was not exactly on the up-and-up, given that the White House had set the parameters for the probe, which included limiting the investigation to only two of the women who had come forward. And now we’ve learned that the sense of the whole thing being a sham? Pretty on target!

Nearly three years after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the FBI has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice’s background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House. In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an FBI assistant director, Jill C. Tyson, said that the most “relevant” of the 4,500 tips the agency received during an investigation into Mr. Kavanaugh’s past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear. The letter left uncertain whether the FBI itself followed up on the most compelling leads. The agency was conducting a background check rather than a criminal investigation, meaning that “the authorities, policies, and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply,” the letter said.

Forty! Five! Hundred! Not one, not two, not 300, not 3,300 but 4,500! Were some of the tips most definitely like, “One beer, two beer, three beer, four. Then Brett Kavanaugh hit the floor” and “IPA lot when I drink beer”? Probably! Were others likely legit? Undoubtedly! Do we think the White House actually did anything about the ones that seemed like they should be looked into? Given that the joint was run at the time by a guy who’s been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, we’re going to go with a resounding hell no. (Trump, of course, has denied any and all allegations against him.)

In an interview with the Times, Senator Whitehouse said the FBI’s disclosure showed the agency’s investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh had been a sham, suggesting that the agency ran a “fake tip line that never got properly reviewed, that was presumably not even conducted in good faith.” (Last March, Whitehouse asked the newly confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to look into the FBI’s handling of its Kavanaugh investigation, writing that the DOJ should determine if the bureau conducted a “fake investigation rather than a sincere, thorough and professional one.” Given today’s disclosure, it seems like that’d still be a worthwhile exercise!)

Despite accusations from, among others, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, Donald Trump stood by the judge, in keeping with his loyalty to people accused of doing horrible things to women. Later, after Kavanaugh failed to help him steal the election, Trump ranted to author Michael Wolff, “Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn’t even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.” And that’s probably true: We do single-handedly have Trump to thank for putting Justice Beer Bong on the highest court in the land for who knows how many decades. Just another one of his great contributions to society.