Writes Jonah Goldberg in "Is It Time for the FBI?" (National Review). He puts a link on "super-serious police" and it goes to this September 18th tweet by his National Review colleague Charles C.W. Cooke:
The FBI is not The Super Serious Police. It’s an agency that is tasked with investing alleged violations of federal law, and even then with a limited remit. The Kavanaugh case, whatever the details, does not qualify. Feinstein knows this. Maybe most journalists do not.Goldberg is citing that not for the stated proposition — "The FBI is not The Super Serious Police" — but for the background premise people believe the FBI is the super-serious police.
Here's Joe Biden to yell at you about what the FBI isn't:
My Democrat friends might want to consider this from then-Judiciary Committee Chairman JOE BIDEN (D-DE) In 1991: The ‘FBI Explicitly Does Not, In This Or Any Other Case Reach A Conclusion, Period’ pic.twitter.com/NvAI3RqevL— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) September 25, 2018
I think the FBI has taken a lot of credibility hits lately. There's no good reason to palm off responsibility to them as though they're some sort of oracle of truth. Maybe you think there should be an authority that could be deferred to, but there isn't one, and, in any event, the authority in place in the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee is the U.S. Senate. I know they're awful, partisan, and ridiculous, but it's their job and they need to step up to it and do what they can. And we can judge them as they do their constitutional work, and we've got a constitutional check on them coming right up in 6 weeks. It's only as good as it is, this democracy. But don't give up!
NOTE: This is the third in a series of posts about Kavanaugh this morning. Comments on this post should only be about this article. Here's my post warning you that a series of posts is forthcoming. If you want to draw attention to other articles, do so in the comments section for that post, not this one.
Posts
92 comments:
Maybe the FBI can prove Kavanaugh is an alien! Where's Mulder and Scully when you need them?
The point of calling in the FBI is to delay.
Everyone knows the FBI isn't going to be able to investigate this. It's too long ago and there aren't any witnesses.
So they call for the FBI in hopes of delay.
I agree with this. The FBI demands are either ignorance or bad faith. It would be political string pulling to involve them. The dems ds are for delay, in hopes of a demo senate.
On this one point, I agree with Ms. Althouse and think that Jonah is looking at optics, not the law.
But then again, I wish Althouse would use that 'law' thing a bit more...maybe not aimed like a magnifying glass ONLY at K.
"I think the FBI has taken a lot of credibility hits lately."
Yes, and so has Jonah Goldberg.
There’s a different guy in “Andy’s Office,” FBI Democrat fixer Strzok is gone. Lisa Page? Gone. Who is going to carry water for the Democrats now? Comey? Gone. BTW, isn’t it pretty fucking obvious at this point that the man needed to be fired?
It’s strictly about delay at this point.
It would actually be very exculpatory for someone senior and trusted (probably from their third tier of responsibility at this point) to say 'Hey...this isn't our job. This investigation is impossible to verify even WITH witnesses and we don't investigate high school groping.'
After all, Comey wasn't hesitant at all to 'school' us on the power politics on accusing Hillary.
What Hillary did was far more abusive than a high school grope...though clearly not to Althouse.
Send in McCabe & Strozk. They have ooodles of credibility.
Eventually the Democrats will have to rely on Yelp reviews.
It’s like that time when Obama was going to “order the Joint Chiefs of Staff” to do something or other.
Jonah is a Never Trumper. He's playing into the Dems' hands on this. No more delays. This is war.
It is crystal clear that the FBI just gathers info. The Senate is the finder of facts and judges of credibility. No need for the FBI in this case. The die is cast. Thursday is D-Day. The Dems will be in shambles after this. CBF has less than zero credibility; if she shows. Her own parents and siblings don't back her!
However, in the alternate universe where the FBI could get to the bottom of it, if she’s lying, she should go to prison.
The FBI is the Headquarters of the Resistance Against President Trump.
Every FBI meeting begins with a group prayer to Almighty God that He grant the Democrats a majority in Congress in the midterm elections.
If the Democrats get a majority, then Adam Schiff will become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and will shut down the investigation of FBI misdeeds immediately.
The Hillary Clinton for president national review just doesn't quit, just like the other democrat media.
Yah- FBI is one more way to not have to burn through another stunt on the list.
Pull the fire alarm is next...
Goldberg is telling us what the Swamp believe people think, not what people actually think. I think he gotten it wrong-again.
Enough. Confirm Kavanaugh and let the FBI putz around. If they actually find something, Kavanaugh will be shamed enough to resign and if he doesn't, the Congress can impeach and remove him.
The time for an investigation by the FBI, or anyone else, into these allegations was more than two months ago, in July when Trump nominated Kavanaugh. See, that's why the Judiciary Committee didn't schedule a hearing for the day after the nomination -- to allow for the committee to gather relevant evidence on the nominee. But no. Most of the committee and the American people were kept in the dark about these "serious" allegations until AFTER the hearing. And NOW we need an investigation? Uh, no.
I think the FBI has taken a lot of credibility hits lately.
That's an understatement.
I suspect an additional FBI investigation would serve no purpose other than further delay. I doubt it would reveal anything truly new.
Just my guess.
Federal investigators collected more than enough information to convict Bill Clinton of forcible rape and never did squat with it, leaving it to Congress.
The FBI has already investigated. DiFi sent them Ford's letter. They reviewed it and placed it in his FBI report.
If the FBI believed there was reason to think a crime had been committed they would have forwarded a referral to the appropriate agency.
Which television private investigator would do best at this?
I would only trust Columbo.
the authority in place in the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee is the U.S. Senate. I know they're awful, partisan, and ridiculous, but it's their job and they need to step up to it and do what they can.
Are they awful, partisan, and ridiculous or are the Democrats awful, partisan, and ridiculous?
What have the Republicans ever done during Senate confirmation hearings that is awful, partisan, and ridiculous?
Jonah Goldberg is an unworthy torch bearer of the great William F Buckley. Goldberg is the kinda general who won't fight, but will get his troops killed in the process.
Columbo would be good. Or one of the BBC crowd.
If the FBI has so much time and manpower available, then it should get busy providing the documents about RussiaGate that Congress has requested.
Also, the FBI could assign someone to write a public report detailing the origins of the FBI's involvement in RussiaGate.
Furthermore, the FBI could investigate the murder of Seth Rich.
Well said Bay Area guide
Goldberg has joined the Kristol team. I wonder if he will be Bill's VP nominee in 2020 ?
The FBI can offer little except to restate Kavanaugh and Ford's existing positions along with whatever "statements" these two can drum up. It will add nothing.
I still find it hard to believe that Ms Ford's life has been so affected by this one relatively small possible event when she was 15 that she should dredge it up now. She did go on to advanced education in psychology that should have enabled her to put this event in perspective. She did go on to secure a professorship at an institution of higher education. She did go on to get married and have children. She does seem to have had a pretty nice life so far.
I think the FBI has taken a lot of credibility hits lately. "
Althouse you get today's Internet Award for the most droll comment and observation. Kudos.
Isn't the reason to use the FBI that they have the tools and expertise for looking into these things? Then they make a report and give it to the latter day Bidens on the judiciary committee.
It's up to soap opera women, not the senate. The senate follows them, via the wavering R senators.
still find it hard to believe that Ms Ford’s life has been so affected by this one relatively small possible event when she was 15 that she should dredge it up now.
Like Dr K once said, it was the “presenting complaint”
She did go on to advanced education in psychology
Cops - Criminals
Psychos - Shrinks
Cowboys - Rustlers...
Maybe you can think of others. “Poachers - Game Wardens”?
Isn't the reason to use the FBI that they have the tools and expertise for looking into these things?
And didn’t they already do that? But I guess the problem is that Andy and the Officemates are gone, so you can’t whip up a witch hunt when you need one.
There is no "evidence" to be gathered in this case; only witness statements - and those we have aplenty already, including from all those named to be potential eye witnesses.
It is increasingly clear that these memories have been "recovered" since Brett Kavanaugh's name was first mentioned as Romney's likely SCOTUS pick in 2012. Kavanaugh now gets to see how Goldberg and the rest of Conservatism Inc. would've treated him had Romney won and he been the nominee.
I knew one kid who grew up to be a prison guard and I am sort of shocked that’s the side of the bars he found himself on.
Goldberg wants us to knuckle under to the liberal fascists?
Sad.
Are we forgetting that the FBI announced there will be no criminal investigation within 48 of Feinstein requesting one?
Goldberg has joined the Kristol team
Jonah has always been a never-Trumper.
It’s an agency that is tasked with investing alleged violations of federal law, and even then with a limited remit.
Cooke is incorrect. FBI also performs background checks for Federal security clearances. And Senate confirmation hearings. Thus the six background checks already performed on Kavanaugh.
The only person who can investigate this case is Dr. Who, who can travel through time. I think Dr. Who is currently female, which is even better.
If it has to be the FBI, then get Ephraim Zimballist Jr.
Lt. Colombo: You know, Mr. Kavanaugh, my wife went to Yale and it really rankles her when she sees Yale grads not living up to the high expectations that were formed during drunken campus gatherings. Oh, and one more thing. When you were reciting the rhyme and hopping on one leg. Can you recall if it was your left or right leg? Or just blackness at that time?
For Gosh Sakes, cut the crap! Hear Ford tomorrow, hear Kavanaugh's response, and VOTE!
"I think the FBI has taken a lot of credibility hits lately."
After MLK? No way. They're the top-o-the-integrity-heap.
Ford is not the last word. Talk radio is agog about new gang rape allegations. They have the woman! Such a person surely cannot be on the supreme court.
I myself may be cynical but women are not.
Attorney Michael Avenatti on Wednesday tweeted a sworn affidavit from a woman who alleges she was a victim of a gang rape at a party in the early 1980s at which Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was present, and that she witnessed efforts by Mr. Kavenaugh to cause girls to become inebriated.... - WSJ
Well, that could be a problem.
The calls to involve the FBI are disingenuous at best. A non-partisan investigation of this issue here would require waiver of 4th Amendment rights by both parties, including all lawyer/client material and doctor/client. I think the only things that such an investigation would uncover that we don't already know would be the electronic discussions by both parties about this event conducted in the last two weeks in the case of Kavanaugh, and the last 6+ years for Ford (going back to her alleged therapist revelation). In those, there is little chance of finding Kavanaugh admitting to anything, but there is, in my opinion, real danger for Ford since I think it very likely that there are additional electronic communications outside that "initial" letter- I think it quite possible that there were communications going back to the Gorsuch nomination. In other words, I think it very unlikely Ford would agree to sign any such waiver, in which case there really is nothing to investigate.
As far as holding back this stuff until it’s too late to get somebody through before the election, well, politics ain’t beanbag, and hardball is how we got Gorsuch.
I find the calls for the FBI ironic. What can the FBI uncover about the original event? We already have depositions from the four named participants saying they don't remember anything happening. No one from her school has come forward with additional information from the time. Could they resolve the questions about who's house, the date, how she got there and back when she can't provide any info? Probably not. As has been said before, all her memory lapses are very convenient because they make any attempt to disprove her story based on facts impossible. The FBI can't resolve that.
What they could find out is all about what CBF is currently hiding. They could access her therapist notes, they could access her social media history to see what she was hiding by purging it, they could access requests for help from current friends. We could learn what we don't know about her and the help she is getting.
Given all these risks on CBF, it would seem that reason from the request is not to find answers but to delay hoping the democrats the senate and defeat Kavanaugh without the need for her testimony. If they did take the senate, it is clear that they will not approve of any Trump nominated judge.
Maybe you think there should be an authority that could be deferred to
No. It's the job of the Senate to confirm or not. The Senate decides what the Senate needs. Not the FBI, journalists, or blue check marks on twitter.
tim in vermont said...
"Attorney Michael Avenatti on Wednesday tweeted a sworn affidavit from a woman who alleges she was a victim of a gang rape at a party in the early 1980s at which Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was present, and that she witnessed efforts by Mr. Kavenaugh to cause girls to become inebriated.... - WSJ
Well, that could be a problem."
Where was this woman two months ago?????????????
Soon as I saw the name "Jonah Golberg" I quit reading. Always the slickster, arguing around the edges, trying to keep his place in the Kool Kids Society will pretending to be a defender of the truth.
Where was this woman two months ago?????????????
Politics ain’t beanbag.
Maybe you can think of others. “Poachers - Game Wardens”?
Hacker - Cyber Security
Chinese Spy - Staffer for Feinstein
"Where was this woman two months ago?????????????
Politics ain’t beanbag."
Politics -- that's why I don't believe her.
I read the charge from Swetnik, too. It is of the same cloth as the first two, but even more ridiculous. She claims to have witnessed these gang rape activities at numerous parties, but never reported them, and continued to attend such parties until she herself was raped. However, I still see no witnesses supporting her story either- just a claim that such people exist. Lets see what else Avenetti actually has- statements from the unnamed witnesses would seem to be an absolute must to have in his possession, but I have yet to see them.
Somehow, and probably without anything other than suggestions by bureaucrats (and lawyers), it was decided the FBI would be run by lawyers, without law enforcement experience. That defies logic, and is what led to what we have today.
The "third woman;" is she the one in the 4chan hoax ?
Somebody should mention that 4-Chan (yesterday) claimed that they were trolling Michael Avenatti and that the woman's story is entirely fabricated, using burner phones. Michael Avenatti denies that.
it was decided the FBI would be run by lawyers, without law enforcement experience. That defies logic, and is what led to what we have today.
A lot of agents the past 25 years are police or military veterans. My daughter, in the Academy, was matched with a small stature Special Forces Army vet in the hand to hand combat course. She said she was black and blue for a month.
Originally, FBI agents had to be lawyers or CPAs but that was when white collar crime was the focus in the 1930s and 40s.
Jonah who?
Quite honestly, it would be better for the NSA to provide all the communications of the entities involved, including their advisors and lawyers. I doubt that both camps have been able to maintain 100% com security as they prepare. We would see who is startled and who is manipulative.
The 4chan poster didn't claim to have sent Avenetti an affidavit. He/she wrote that all they did was use cell phones to sell a story to Avenetti. So, I think the affidavit is proof the 4chan poster was lying.
It appears that Swetnick has also purged her social media- no one can find a trace of it.
Avenatti has released the "third woman" statement. She's claiming that she was drugged and gang raped back in 1982 and witnessed other gang rapes. She does not claim that she was raped by Kavanaugh; but claims that she saw him and Mark Judge waiting for their "turns" at another gang rape situation.
Sounds like we are fast approaching them wanting to disqualify Kavanaugh for once being on a bus with someone who did something bad.
Everybody who follows the DC Follies knows by now that the FBI is a mythological investigative Bureau. It's only duty is to announce they are taking over all investigation of a crime that the DC powers want buried forever.They are masters at fake evidence and discrediting witnesses that tell inconvenient facts. Or they arrest them on false charges. And supposed Saint Mueller was as evil a Director as they come when he worked so hard to cover up the crimes of Clinton, Inc..
So, I think the affidavit is proof the 4chan poster was lying.
Or it is a different woman. Or Michael Avenatti is lying. Or the affidavit is faked. Or . . .
Ford should release all communications and notes she’s had with anyone about this alleged incident with Vrett.
All therapists communications and notes. All lawyer communications and notes. All journalist communications and notes. All congress and their staff communications and notes.
And her lawyers should release all communications and notes they had with Ford, her family, Congress/staff, and journalists.
Let’s see all her medical records.
Then the FBI can be called in to help determine The Truth.
Ford’s story has shifted over 6 years since she first told someone a story about it.
The only investigation is whether she lied. Because her story has changed and all versions are bulkshit. Made it isn’t knowingly false since she’s nuts.
Maybe she can plead an insanity defense to lying to Congress.
Jonah, Megan McArdle, George Will, are all a piece of with Piggy from "Lord Of the Flies" thinking that holding to standards, and trying to get cajole the standard violators to come around by speaking reasonably and beseechingly. But at the end of the day, these sorts would rather die than devolve into a world without standards.
Unfortunately, they assume everyone else would also rather be a gracious loser. So they assert standards which the other side, not paying a single price, won't honor. They will laugh at Piggy Goldberg, eat his lunch and sleep with his wife, all while he impotently says 'Guys!'
And he hates Trump for NOT holding to standards. Goldberg misses the point that facing folks like Trump CREATES standards as a less odious alternative.
Philosophically, Jonah is okay and he's clever with words and he does some yeoman work on history...but he is still Piggy from LotF. You need a Trump to (eventually) make the other side sick to death of losing so they actually pull up their socks and start acting like human beings again.
I wish Jonah would quit jogging his elbow. He, as much as Althouse, has lost TONS of credibility. That standards are a good thing isn't the question, which is what Jonah obsesses about. It is how to make assholes follow these standards. For that you need a Big Tool.
Michael K,
Avenatti might be a scumbag, but would he really take sight unseen an affidavit and tweet it out? I have to believe he got this affidavit in person- either himself, or through a known and trusted proxy- not through the mail from someone claiming to be Swetnick. If it does turn out to be a hoax, Avenatti is extremely stupid. I reread the affidavit, and in it Swetnick is very careful to not claim she was raped by Kavanaugh or Judge, or to even claim she saw them raping other women.
Speaking of which...Ms. Althouse...when are you going to return to the standards of the Rule of Law, Innocent until PROVEN guilty (no matter what the husband says) and Rule of Order to keep the misbehavior to a minimum?
I mean, I get that after 50 years of having to hold to those standards, one might get tired of them. It just seems rather selective the way you jettison them.
On Jul 5, 2016, Director Comey was unaware that the FBI does not reach conclusions or make recommendations.
Maybe the policy changed sometime in the intervening 25 years.
I reread the affidavit, and in it Swetnick is very careful to not claim she was raped by Kavanaugh or Judge, or to even claim she saw them raping other women.
Yes, I read it too. She is probably a DSA member who was harassing an administration member in a restaurant and has been assured there will be no consequences for her now either.
Kavanaugh's calendar is even more important now. Does this woman have dates she alleges she saw him ?
The Democrats' plan is working. I'm sorry to say it.
Sooooooo. Let me see if I understand this.
The FBI, which conducted 6 background checks on Judge Kavanaugh, but missed gang rapes, gropings, and other sexual assaults, and found nothing.
THAT FBI should be called on to investigate now??
How in the world can anyone with a drop of objectivity in their blood by buying any of this stuff?
Belle17 said...
"How in the world can anyone with a drop of objectivity in their blood by buying any of this stuff?"
I have "a drop of objectivity" in my blood and, I've told you, you're ALL CRAZY LIARS. You built a nation on it.
Don't act like it's a new phenomena now.
“I think the FBI has taken a lot of credibility hits lately.”
Anyone else see the new FBI TV show last night. Sure, there was a lot of actions, but it turned out to have been MS-13 working for a white nationalist. The FBI, of course, found the last, most deadly, bomb at the last minute, disarmed it, and then the white nationalist was outed by trying to detonate the (now) disarmed bomb with his cell phone with the FBI heroine looking on.
The use of the white nationalist as the primary antagonist was a dead giveaway, to me, of the politics of those making the show, and strong indicia that the purpose of the series is to regain some of their legitimacy, lost by spying on the Trump campaign, transaction, and Administration, and then sandbagging, lying, and redacting in response to demands to see their work.
Jonah Goldberg's essay didn't do much for me.
I think most will concede that there is no point in having FBI do interviews to assist the Senators in deciding how they will vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. Essentially all of them have already said how they will vote and their decision was based entirely on partisan interests -- the Ds voting no (most said so long before Ford showed up), and the Rs voting yea (most also said so before Ford showed up). That hasn't changed and isn't going to. A few senators are stuck in the middle and are just wishing it would all go away. But even those few will be motivated mostly by electoral concerns (or perhaps larger ideological ones, but not about any of Ford/Ramirez stuff).
And as Biden spelled out correctly in 1991, the FBI just reports the information it collects. It does not adjudicate anything, and won't offer a judgment about credibility.
So in that environment, having the FBI conduct such interviews adds value only to the extent it improves the public's understanding and acceptance of whatever the Senate may decide. But, for those actually paying attention, having the FBI interview the various players at this stage is unlikely to accomplish anything -- the witnesses have already given their accounts, and none of them is going to change the substance of what they've already said. The public (those paying attention, at any rate) have also made up their minds, either for or against Kavanaugh, and are not going to be swayed by reading about an FBI 302 recounting the same stuff that the witnesses have already said elsewhere.
So what is the gain in public acceptance of the Senate's ultimate decision from having the FBI interview the witnesses? None that I can see.
Trump has turned Goldberg into a pinhead. The FBI sucks, but it has done six background checks of Kavanaugh. I have been interviewed several times when federal judgeships were at issue. Each time after the stock questions based on the nominee’s known background, I was asked: “Do you know or have you heard ANYTHING that would reflect negatively on the nominee’s fitness to be a federal judge?”
Ford cannot come off credible. Five witnesses and her own therapist contradict her. She cannot remember the year. She cannot remember the location. She has even vacillated on the number of her assailants. She is not credible! This would even be true if her target was a known sexual predator like Bill Clinton.
The use of the white nationalist as the primary antagonist was a dead giveaway, to me, of the politics of those making the show,
Not new. When the movie version of "Sum of All Fears" was made the villains were not the Palestinians but South African whites.
Professora ... This is actually an offer from Democrat promising full assistance and encouragement to FBI to become stasi or gestapo.
hombre,
Goldberg already was a pinhead, with the possible exception of when he writes about dogs.
He's like a right-wing version of Maureen Dowd... Good with words in glib sort of way, but that's as far as it goes.
The reason why people on the left are trying to flatter the FBI is because they think it will be an arbiter in the upcoming civil conflict and they think they may get it to side with them.
Oh, God. Never_trumper Jonah Goldberg.
Another person who gets quoted because everyone quotes him.
Jonah's been reading off a script for 20 years. He's a #FakeCon. But he plays the part the big donors want to see.
National Review kept him and fired Derbyshire, Coulter, and Steyn. Which is why nobody but the Koch brothers and the Chamber of commerce types read it.
How come it is mandatory to believe or at least treat with utmost seriousness the far fetched claims of three people who barely knew Kavanagh, if at all, yet the dozens and dozens of women who have known him for decades and testify in support of him are given no credence at all?
I don’t get it. So many of you belittle Goldberg when his stance on involving the FBI is the same as yours.
Phil,
We belittle Goldberg because, if he had his way back in Nov 2016, we'd all be arguing over Hillary's nominee instead of Trump's AND by being a Never Trumper it's obvious he's never repented of that foolishness.
Biden was/is a pompous ass as that video soliloquy demonstrates. I hope he doesn't become president in the aftermath of Trump. You can't completely wall off investigating a crime from the prosecution of the suspects. The FBI investigators are trained to properly handle (physical) evidence. They make referrals to prosecutors. Biden's grating speech from decades ago is being used by extreme partisans on the Right to justify failing to properly investigate the accusations against Kavanaugh. It tilts my BS meter.
"How come it is mandatory to believe or at least treat with utmost seriousness the far fetched claims of three people who barely knew Kavanagh, if at all, yet the dozens and dozens of women who have known him for decades and testify in support of him are given no credence at all?"
Just because you can string words together doesn't mean that what you say is sensible. "Far fetched" tells me that you pay little attention to the facts as they come tumbling out. Ms. Blasey-Fords was traumatized by a drunken Kavanaugh. That's enough to disqualify him for the Supreme Court. He's a piggish entitled rich kid as well. He'll protect rich bastards when on the court, NOT the little guy.
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