FBI as scapegoat in Brett Kavanaugh investigation. First let’s look at what is being said, then let’s consider the FBI’s report which is in a SCIF so the Senate can read it.
A number of Senate Democrats have already spoken out to criticize the FBI supplemental investigation into Brett Kavanaugh with the report being made available for members to read today.
Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) decried it as a “sham”.
All the tweeters, bloggers, and articles say “publish the report” or “tell us what’s in it”. Why might the report be one single copy in a SCIF. Let’s start with what a SCIF is.
“A Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF; pronounced “skiff”) in British and United States military, national security/national defense and intelligence parlance, is an enclosed area within a building that is used to process Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) types of classified information.
SCIFs can be either permanent or temporary, and can set up in official government buildings (such as the Situation Room in the White House), on board ships, in private residences of officials, or in hotel rooms and other places of necessity for officials when traveling. As part of this process, non-cleared personnel are also typically required to surrender all recording, photographic and other electronic media devices. All of the activity and conversation inside is presumed restricted from public disclosure.”
So having been an FBI Agent and in dozens (maybe hundreds) of SCIFs, what this is telling you is that there is something interpreted as classified in the document. Therefore you can’t just publish it until it is redacted (the classified material blacked out) or the document is declassified in its entirety.
I’m going to be honest here, from what is coming out I don’t like Kavanaugh a bit. Still, why would the FBI not release the report? They can’t! That is why it is in a damn SCIF. It will gradually all leak out because while most FBI Agents can keep their mouths shut the Senators won’t be able to.
Why is the FBI being questioned as acting as some strong arm tool for the Republicans. Trust me, whoever in the FBI got assigned this Shit Sandwich a week ago to investigate deserves some praise not the public’s ire. While I do not know what happened so long ago with Kavanaugh it is a Federal Offense to lie under oath (or to an FBI Agent for that matter). Since Kavanaugh (and Christine Blasey Ford) have testified re-interviewing now them sets either up for those charges. It does not surprise me they weren’t interviewed by the FBI for this very reason, and because their statements are already on the record.
I think I’ll just wish everyone peace, and pray for the same tonight when I lay my head down to sleep.
