Yes, Kavanaugh did it. And yes, they covered it up.
by digby
The New York Times published an excerpt of a new book about the Kavanaugh confirmation which alleges that the FBI failed to interview at least 25 witnesses. It turns out that there was credible corroboration for one of the charges (shoving his penis in women’s faces in college) which was offered to the FBI.
Apparently, the president and his accomplices abused their power egregiously. Surprise!
The president responded this morning by abusing his power some more:
When Kavanaugh appeared before the committee that day to respond to Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, he showed himself to be a hardcore partisan bully with the temperament of a 14-year-old boy with serious adjustment problems. Other Republicans revealed themselves to be the same. Let’s not forget hat they all vigorously kiss the ring, every single day, of a man who is on tape bragging about grabbing women by the pussy and is credibly accused of rape and assault all the way into his 50s.
They are all Brett Kavanaugh.
Crooks and Liars captured one of the discussions of the article on the Sunday Gasbag shows this morning:
Rather than defend the fact that the FBI and his committee obviously failed to do their jobs and properly investigate these allegations, Cruz lashed out at Democrats for calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment and dismissed the reporting by the Times as just another liberal witch hunt from the “far left” that’s out to get poor Kavanaugh.
STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the big issues we’re going to talk about now with Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Senator Cruz, thank you for joining us this morning. And I — and I do want to get to guns but first, that breaking news I spoke with Senator Klobuchar about, Justice Kavanaugh. You’re a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee as well. What do you make of the new revelations from The New York Times, the calls from your fellow Texan Julian Castro to impeach Justice Kavanaugh?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Well, George, good morning, good to be with you. I read that The New York Times article this morning. You know, I gotta say, they apparently spent 10 months with undercover reporters trying to track down every person that went to school with Justice Kavanaugh 30 years ago. You know, it’s an amazing level of reporting trying to just really dig up any dirt they can on the guy. I think that follows up with — with the rather shameful circus we saw during the confirmation hearing, where — where they took allegations, they sat on them, they didn’t make them public, they revealed them at the 11th hour.And you know what, the Judiciary Committee did what we should have done. We held a hearing, we — we invited the principal witness to testify, we’ve heard it, the American people heard it and at the end of the day, the American people made a judgment that — that the evidence wasn’t there, the corroboration wasn’t there, and — and I think this article just shows the obsession with the far left, with — with trying to smear Justice Kavanaugh by going 30 years back with anonymous sources. It — it — it really is another sign of how —
STEPHANOPOULOS: You say the —
CRUZ: — nasty and divided the time is today.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You say the corroboration isn’t there but one of the points the article makes is that 25 witnesses weren’t even interviewed by the FBI and a named — a person named who is making allegations wasn’t interviewed by the FBI at all. That’s part of their point, that it wasn’t an adequate investigation.
CRUZ: Well, to be clear, the — the — the allegations the Senate Judiciary looked at and considered were the allegations from Dr. Ford, the allegations of sexual assault, that the committee rightly said if this happened, this is a serious allegation and — and we scheduled a hearing, we invited Dr. Ford to testify. We actually gave Dr. Ford the opportunity to testify in private if she preferred. Amazingly enough, she testified at the hearings. Her lawyer never passed that on to her. She said she didn’t want to be in that public hearings, but — but her lawyers apparently kept that a secret. And — and what you saw is you really saw the Democrats I think taking advantage of Dr. Ford and turning it into a circus.
You know, we saw a Spartacus moment in the middle of it, which showed how ridiculous the entire proceeding was. But at the end of the day, we listened to the evidence, we listened to all of the potential corroborating witnesses for Dr. Ford, the FBI interviewed them, examined them. Their testimony did not corroborate her allegations and the American people had a chance to look Judge Kavanaugh in the eye — now Justice Kavanaugh — and hear his explanation. And at the end of the day, I think this is The New York Times just — just — just being bitter enders.
And you know what, I bet you the next Democratic debate, they’ll all be saying impeach Kavanaugh, impeach Trump. There’s nobody they don’t want to impeach. And at some point, they just have to let the anger go and recognize that the democratic process actually moves on. And I think it’s time for them to do that.
Kavanaugh’s crimes, aside from the lying to the committee (which may actually be the result of drunken blackouts rather than dishonesty) were long in the past. Trump, on the other hand, is committing crimes left and right, abusing his power, corruptly using his office for personal gain and betraying the country. If they won’t impeach him, they surely won’t impeach Kavanaugh.
In fact, if they don’t get off the dime, I’m afraid that we can take impeachment out of the constitution, at least for Republicans. (Democrats, of course, will be impeached for the smallest infraction. They were already planning the impeachment of Hillary Clinton before the election.)
I’m watching people on TV talking about prosecuting Trump after he leaves office. I think that it’s possible the State of New York or California might prosecute him for state crimes. But we’re already hearing that the new president will have to “bind up the nation’s wounds” so a federal prosecution is probably off the table. And the fact that the congress was unable to impeach the president will weigh heavily on that decision. After all, if they couldn’t do it, maybe the whole thing was a witch hunt anyway. Why would prosecutors go out on a limb when the US Congress didn’t really try to make a case? Especially when they have the Mueller Report that clearly and unambiguously lays out the cover-up?
If the Democrats don’t impeach, the idea of Trump being held accountable by the legal system is unrealistic. He will get aways with it. And he will be a hero to tens of millions of Americans for doing it. Just like Brett Kavanaugh.
Crooks and Liars Nicolle Belle did a nice analysis of everything that was wrong with the New York Times’ headline and story, about this which is a scandal in itself.
Oy.
.