The single copy of the FBI's Kavanaugh report is behind closed doors. Here's what senators have to do to see it

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/04/politics/senator-fbi-report-
review/index.html

(CNN)Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to be the next Supreme Court
justice will be decided Thursday.

All 100 senators will be able to review the supplemental background
investigation throughout the day. A reminder that barring some dramatic
disclosure in from that inquiry, 95 senators have already made up their
minds. How the remaining groups sees the new background information -- and
how it factors into their decisions -- will drive the day.

It all comes down to five senators -- three Republicans and two Democrats
-- and what they see today behind closed doors. Here are the rules
senators are following to review the documents.

The format
Judiciary Committee Republican staff got the first look at the FBI's
findings starting at 8 a.m. ET. At 9 a.m. ET, Democrats took over the
room. Control of the room is scheduled to rotate, every other hour, for
the rest of Thursday with most, if not all, of the 51-senator GOP
conference is expected to file into the room at 10 a.m.
The staff that is cleared to review the material will provide briefings,
likely to groups of senators, and the senators will be able to review the
raw 302s themselves.

The rules
This FBI's work is not public. It will likely never be public. There will
be no summary. There will be no release.
There are 109 people who have clearance to access what was delivered to
Capitol Hill at 2:30 Thursday morning -- 100 senators, four majority
committee staffers and four minority committee staffers, one committee
clerk. That's it.

There is a single copy of the FBI's findings. It is currently in a vault,
in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility -- or SCIF, if you'd
like to use the Washington short hand. It cannot leave the room.
Senators can't bring their phones into the SCIF when they go to review the
documents. If they take notes, the notes must be left in the room when the
senator leaves.

Senators are not allowed to discuss or characterize in detail what they've
read (though they most certainly will try.)

What that means
The public is expected to only be able to gauge what's in the FBI's
findings in two ways:

First: the topline characterizations of senators who read the documents.
Reminder these senators have very specific motivations for how they
characterize what they see, especially given it won't be publicly
released.

Second: By the votes on the Senate floor. If the undecided senators all
get to "yes," then they saw something that assuaged their concerns -- or
at least didn't create any more.

Important point
This is, quite literally, how the process is designed to work, as guided
by a bipartisan Judiciary Committee memorandum of understanding signed in
2009. Background investigations are not supposed to be made public -- in
fact, it's against the law to do so. The limited number of people with
access, the restrictions on public disclosure, even the number of copies
provided, are all dictated by rules the committee agreed to nine years
ago.

It's worth noting -- Republican senators discussed for days whether there
was a way to make some form of the information public, either in summary
form or some other mechanism. It was decided that given the rules in
place, and the potential legal issues, it isn't doable at this point.

What the White House is saying
The White House has explored ways to make some of the FBI report public,
an official familiar with the deliberations says, but lawyers have
determined it would be very difficult without violating the Privacy Act or
the memorandum of understanding that dictates how the information is
shared.

Officials feel if the report was made public it would prove the "no
corroboration" line they and Senate Republicans have been projecting this
morning. But as of Thursday morning, they believe there is very little
they will be able to make public, or comment on specifically.

Separately, a senior White House official told CNN they won't call for the
release of the background investigation — and claims the Senate can't
release it either.

What Senate GOP leaders believe right now
Multiple senior GOP aides expressed confidence Wednesday night that
Kavanaugh was on the path to confirmation -- though all acknowledged
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still hasn't received any
commitments or assurances from the undecided senators.

The expectation, aides say, is barring some significant new disclosure in
the FBI inquiry, they'll make it over the vote threshold to get Kavanaugh
confirmed.

"We've made sure they got what they needed," one of the aides said. "Now
we move forward."

The week-long delay is almost over. The FBI supplemental background check
is officially on Capitol Hill. The first vote is scheduled for Friday.
This is moving, one way or another.


--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.