Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that he doesn’t think Congress should move forward with additional investigations into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh or the alleged leak of Christine Blasey Ford’s letter regarding her accusations against him.
“I don’t think that [Congress] should move forward…with additional investigations,” Flake told ABC’s “This Week.”
“Either into the leak that occurred that allowed a lot of the back and forth to go between Democrats and Republicans or certainly trying to remove Justice Kavanaugh from the [Supreme] Court as some of the Democrats have said that they would do,” Flake said.
{mosads}Flake said that he thought the weeklong FBI investigation he requested into the allegations against Kavanaugh was narrower than he would have preferred, but sufficient. The investigation into Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school was conducted before a Senate vote that confirmed Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
“I would have liked to have started it earlier and had it more broad but it was a good investigation,” Flake said. “I think we’re in a better place than we would have been.”
At Flake’s request, the FBI investigated Ford’s and another woman’s allegations of Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct.
Kavanaugh has denied the accusations, which Republican senators said remain unproven after the FBI probe.
Democrats say that the FBI investigation was not sufficiently thorough.
Some on the left, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), have called for an investigation into Kavanaugh’s impeachment, should Democrats take back the House in the November midterms.
Others, such as Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), have contended that such conversations are premature.
Meanwhile, some members of the GOP have pushed for an investigation to uncover who leaked a letter from one of Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said last week that he “strongly suspects” that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) leaked Ford’s letter after Ford requested that her identity remain confidential.