Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.

Republicans accelerated the timetable of their Brett Kavanaugh cover-up, demanding a quick vote on his Supreme Court confirmation despite mountainous questions about Kavanaugh’s behavior.

Within moments of the FBI delivering summaries of its abbreviated, supplemental background check to the White House, administration officials told reporters for a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper that the reports had cleared Kavanaugh, and that no misconduct had been corroborated.

They did this despite the fact that Kavanaugh’s central accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, was never interviewed by the FBI, nor was Kavanaugh himself.

By not having to answer FBI questions, Kavanaugh, who has shown himself in recent weeks to be a casual liar, was able to avoid possible legal jeopardy.

“An FBI supplemental background investigation that did not include an interview of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford — nor the witnesses who corroborate her testimony — cannot be called an investigation,” Ford’s legal team complained.

Last week, Ford detailed her allegations of assault before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The contents of the truncated FBI investigation, the parameters of which were tightly restricted by Republicans, remain out of public view, even while Republicans spin out conclusions in the press.

On Thursday morning, only senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, or approved staff members, were allowed to view the report and were only allowed to be inside a secure room with it for one hour.

Only one copy of the report was produced.

A previous agreement “precludes disclosure of contents of a background file by the committee and lays out circumstances under which designated staff members or senators who disclose its contents without authorization can be punished,” the New York Times notes.

The FBI report did not address whether Kavanaugh has previously lied about his heavy drinking from his youth. The issue is central to Ford’s claim because she says Kavanaugh was drunk the night he attacked her in high school.

An array of Kavanaugh’s former classmates have come forward in recent days to detail his often out of control drinking habits.

But they have been shut out of the FBI process.

“Frustrated potential witnesses who have been unable to speak with the F.B.I agents conducting the investigation into sexual-assault allegations against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, have been resorting to sending statements, unsolicited, to the Bureau and to senators, in hopes that they would be seen before the inquiry concluded,” the New Yorker reports.

The cover-up rolls on.

Published with permission of The American Independent.