The American Bar Association called on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday evening to halt the confirmation vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, saying it should not move forward until an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against him can be completed.
“The basic principles that underscore the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI,” ABA President Robert Carlson wrote in a letter to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California.
The letter, which is unlikely to sway Republicans, said that an appointment to the Supreme court “is simply too important to rush to a vote.” “Deciding to proceed without conducting an additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate’s reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court,” Carlson wrote in the letter, obtained by The Washington Post.
The ABA, with 400,000 members, is the legal profession’s largest organization. Kavanaugh and his supporters have bragged about its favorable rating of the nominee, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., describing the imprimatur as the “gold standard.”
Also calling for an FBI probe was Harvard Law School scholar Alan Dershowitz, often lauded by President Donald Trump’s for his criticisms of the the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. “Maybe we can get closer to the truth, although that is not certain,” Dershowitz wrote in a Fox News opinion piece. “But right now there are too many unanswered question[s] to bring the confirmation of Kavanaugh” to “a vote of the Judiciary Committee as scheduled on Friday, much less to a vote of the full Senate.” It is “possible that one of them is deliberately lying. Right now, there is no way of knowing for certain, which is why the FBI needs to talk to the judge’s accusers and others.”
During Thursday’s tumultuous hearing, in which Christine Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982, Kavanaugh referenced his good standing with the ABA multiple times as he angrily denied Ford’s allegations.
“For 12 years, everyone who has appeared before me on the D.C. Circuit has praised my judicial temperament. That’s why I have well unanimous, well-qualified rating from the American Bar Association,” Kavanaugh testified.
As part of its review of Kavanaugh’s qualifications, the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary found that Kavanaugh “enjoys an excellent reputation for integrity and is a person of outstanding character,” contributing to its unanimous “well-qualified” rating. Kavanaugh and Graham together alluded to the ABA investigation at least three times Thursday.
Democrats on the committee, meanwhile, complained bitterly about the majority’s unwillingness to have an FBI investigation and accused Republicans of rushing the confirmation.
Kavanaugh avoided answering when asked by Democrats whether he would ask for an FBI investigation into Ford’s allegations himself.
In her opening statement Thursday, Ford told of how Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her and covered her mouth at a summer gathering when they were teenagers. In his, Kavanaugh cast himself as a victim of a “calculated and orchestrated political hit,” fueled by “pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election.”
An outside prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell of Maricopa County, Arizona, led much of the questioning, peppering Kavanaugh with questions about his high school drinking habits and asking Ford about the lingering psychological trauma she claims Kavanaugh’s actions caused.
Mitchell, a registered Republican, stood in for the all-male GOP senators on the committee, who did not question Ford. When it was Kavanaugh’s turn, Democrats zeroed in on Kavanaugh’s high school behavior at Georgetown Prep just outside of Washington, asking him about how much beer he typically drank during parties and to describe cryptic yearbook messages, which some have surmised contain sexual innuendos.
The committee announced Thursday evening that it would go ahead with a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination Friday morning, with a final confirmation vote expected Tuesday. In calling for the FBI investigation into Ford’s claims before any such vote could happen, Carlson urged the Senate to “remain an institution that will reliably follow the law and not politics.”
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