Senator Chuck Grassley. (file photo)
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says he has his hands full shepherding Brett Kavanaugh’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination through the U.S. Senate — and he is not launching an investigation of the leak of Christine Blasey Ford’s confidential letter about abuse allegations against Kavanaugh.
“Right now there’s a lot of conflict between Republicans and Democrats,” Grassley said this morning, “and I don’t think I want to make any more conflict at this time.”
Another Republican senator from South Carolina who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee with Grassley has said he wants a “full-scale investigation” to find out who leaked the letter.
“I’m not going to take any action in regards to that as of now and I would talk to Lindsey Graham with what he has in mind,” Grassley said during a conference call with Iowa reporters, “and I would want to know some background on any committee in the senate doing that in the past.”
Ford first wrote her congresswoman in early July, then wrote one of California’s senators a letter in late July, but Ford asked that both letters be kept confidential. The letter was first published by The Intercept, an online publication that was first to publish leaked National Security Agency documents from government contractor Edward Snowden. Grassley told reporters he’ll work with senators who want to find out who leaked the letter about Kavanaugh, but he’s made no decision about how an investigation might proceed.
“I haven’t taken any action and right now I’ve got my hands full with this nomination,” Grassley said, “even though it’s out of my committee.”
California Senator Feinstein is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Feinstein has said neither she nor her staff leaked Ford’s letter to the media and she’s criticized Republicans for focusing on how it was publicly released rather than on its contents. The Intercept has denied that Feinstein was their source for the letter.