Senate Democrats demand additional information on FBI's years-old inquiry into Kavanaugh

Senate Democrats are questioning the FBI's effort to review now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's background, due to the recent revelation that a significant number of the 4,500 tips the agency received by the agency were referred to Trump White House attorneys. 

A letter sent in late June to Democrat Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, and Chris Coons, of Delaware, from Jill Tyson, an FBI assistant director, reveals that the most "relevant" tips received by the bureau were handed to the administration. Tyson did not disclose how or if the agency followed up on the most compelling of the tips. 

Whitehouse, discussing the letter, said it clearly illustrated that the FBI's handling of accusations directed at Kavanaugh was a sham. He says the FBI was running a "fake tip line that never got properly reviewed, that was presumably not even conducted in good faith."

Whitehouse and six additional Democrat senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee are now demanding additional details about the White House's role in the FBI's inquiry. 

"Your letter confirms that the F.B.I.’s tip line was a departure from past practice and that the F.B.I. was politically constrained by the Trump White House," reads a response letter from the senators.