What is Wrong With Trump’s Response to Ford’s Charges

  • What is Wrong With Trump’s Response to Ford’s Charges

Clearly, the FBI should reopen its background checks. Both the one for the Supreme Court appointment, and the one for the District Court judgeship, which Brett Kavanaugh still has a lifetime appointment on. They have already put Prof. Ford’s letter in their background check file. Since a federal crime has not been alleged, they do not investigate for charges.  However, in the initial questioning, a Senator asked Kavanaugh if he had ever assaulted a woman, and he said no, under oath.  The audience didn’t know what was the purpose of that question, but Kavanaugh did not look surprised when he answered.  If he lied, he committed perjury, and the FBI can charge him with that.  Siince there is no time limit on the charges in the State of Maryland, the Attorney General of Maryland or the County Prosecutor should investigate the charges.  We note that there are over 4 million Americans with security clearances, who had background checks.  The FBI is processing 160,000 to 180,000 checks at any given time.  One more, no big deal.

Mark Judge, the alleged other person in the room, has informed the Senate Judiciary Committee that he will not testify. If nothing happened, he should have supported his friend, Kavanaugh, and so testified. If he actually couldn’t remember, he should also have testified, so as to remove any doubts. If the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee really wanted to get to the truth, or assure the American people that they have made a responsible choice for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, they would subpoena Mr. Judge to testify under oath.

Clearly, they are not going to meet the October 1st phony deadline of when the Supreme Court session starts, which was their excuse to rush the appointment.  This could also give the Judiciary Committee time to examine the million files, and tens of thousands submitted at the last minute before the hearings started.  The latest charges show how essential that should be.

It is obvious that Trump does not feel that confident in Judge Kavanaugh, or he would order the FBI to reopen the background checks. The same week, Trump has ordered the FBI to turn over sensitive material related to his own campaign’s investigation, just because it can help him and Fox News feed their propaganda that the Special Counsel’s investigation is a “witch hunt” carried out by Democrats. Trump should also have directed the FBI to investigate all those who have threatened Prof. Ford. Instead of acting to protect her life, he asked for sympathy to Kavanaugh’s wife and children, making Ford into a villain, for asserting serious crimes against her.  She will have to live in terror for a long time, but not Kavanaugh’s family.

Trump has also invoked the 36 year gap before reporting the sexual assault crimes. This goes along with the assault charges against Trump himself, and with the Special Counsel’s charges against Trump’s campaign crew. But there is no statute of limitations on the assault crimes in Maryland. For a President who has the most #MeToo charges against him, it is even further damning that he is giving no support to Prof. Ford, who is sacrificing everything.

Since Trump only has two and a half years to establish a legacy, but his Supreme Court appointees will be leaving his legacy for 30 years, he should realize how important it is to get the right choices, not to mention clearly honorable appointees. Pushing a lifetime appointee through in a few weeks is a good strategy to prevent the Senate from being able to examine the nominee’s record, but not to bring praise to the President.

Then there is the character test of Kavanaugh, by himself.  Does he really want the Supreme Court appointment so badly that he will accept a disgraced appointment, that he will be embarrassed about every day of his life?  He simply has to say to delay the hearing a few weeks for a new FBI background check, and for time for his extensive documentary record to be reviewed.  Then he will not have a disgraced appointment.  However, he has spent days at the White House, presumably being prepped for his Monday testimony.  Not a great character reference from himself.

This is majority leader Sen. McConnell’s second theft of a Supreme Court Justice position. If we do not stop him now, it is too late.  If we don’t stop him, it will be like a putsch.

I really hate to be dragged into this. I should really be complaining today about Trump’s removing the requirement that methane releases at wells be captured and converted into energy.  That is actually asking a lot, but at least methane should be flared so that the carbon in methane gets converted to a carbon in CO2, which is only 1/86th as much a greenhouse gas over a 20 year period.  It may also be that Trump abolished the older flaring regulation.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in 2018 Midterm Election, Congressional Investigation, Constitution, Donald Trump, Fifth Amendment, Fossil Fuel Energy, Kavanaugh, Supreme Court, USGCRP. Bookmark the permalink.

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