Apparently, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) did not feel he inflicted enough damage on the women of this nation during the Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearing to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Now, he has decided to wield his position as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to go after an attorney who is making announcements about potentially running against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Michael Avenatti. This is especially hateful toward the woman whom Avenatti has been representing.
Grassley referred the attorney and his client to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal investigation. He claimed both Avenatti and Julie Swetnick, who accused Kavanaugh of being at parties where women were drugged and raped, made false statements to Congress.
She was the third woman to come forward during Kavanaugh’s hearing. Grassley did let the first woman come forward with a very credible testimony. Dr. Ford is an expert in the field of trauma, and Grassley forbade the other two accusers from testifying.
At the very last minute, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) demanded the FBI investigation in Dr. Ford’s claims that she had been wanting. However, the White House limited the investigation severely. The agency was not even allowed to investigate Kavanaugh or Ford.
Through her attorney, Swetnick urged Grassley to allow an FBI investigation. The elderly senator simply was in too big of a rush to push Kavanaugh through to his lifetime appointment. Swetnick even signed a sworn declaration.
Grassley wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting the investigation. The senator noted in that letter that his referral was not meant to allege a crime, but it certainly sounded as if it was. He wrote, according to CNBC:
‘Potential violations” (of federal criminal code, i.e.) conspiracy, false statements and obstruction of Congress. (and for materially false statements they made to the Committee during the course of the Committee’s investigation.’
Avenatti tweeted a response:
‘It is ironic that Senator Grassley now is interested in investigations. He didn’t care when it came to putting a man on the SCOTUS for life. We welcome the investigation as now we can finally get to the bottom of Judge Kavanaugh’s lies and conduct. Let the truth be known.’
The senator has been on the Senate Judiciary Committee ever since he took office in Senate in 1990. Grassley entered politics in 1958, when he won his first election to the Iowa House of Representatives. The eighty-five-year-old senator continued in his statements in a letter:
‘The law prohibits such false statements to Congress and obstruction of congressional committee investigations. For the law to work, we can’t just brush aside potential violations. I don’t take lightly making a referral of this nature, but ignoring this behavior will just invite more of it in the future.’
Kavanaugh came into the committee loaded for bear. He was rude, insulting, and enraged. Apparently, Grassley thought the judge’s surly, belligerent behavior was fine testimony for this lifetime SCOTUS.
Interesting that the octogenarian let Kavanaugh’s many easily provable lies to that very committee slip right through his fingers, but now he wants to go after a woman who claims she was gang-raped. Does he not understand that he will be violating the woman once again — or does he just not care?
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
