US Senate candidate Bob Flanders released the following statement today about Sheldon Whitehouse
US Senate candidate Bob Flanders released the following statement today about Sheldon Whitehouse directing Judge Kavanaugh’s false accuser to the media:
“On September 24, 2018 Sheldon Whitehouse wrote to the Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking minority member Diane Feinstein (D-California). He told them that he had alerted the FBI about an allegation he had received (one that later proved to be spurious) from a Rhode Island constituent regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s supposed sexual assault of the constituent’s female friend in Newport sometime during the summer of 1985. Rather than follow a responsible course of action, however, in limiting the referral of that matter to the Judiciary Committee and to the FBI, Sheldon Whitehouse said that he also “provided the constituent with the contact information of a reporter who might investigate the allegation.”
By referring that constituent to a reporter, Senator Whitehouse showed that he was more interested in fomenting a media-feeding frenzy than in ascertaining the veracity or credibility of the allegation. Indeed, within hours of Senator Whitehouse referring his constituent to a reporter, the same constituent recanted his allegations about Judge Kavanaugh. This type of partisan hatchet work indicates that Sheldon Whitehouse cares more about stopping the elevation of Judge Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court than he does about fundamental fairness, due process, and the integrity of the United States Senate. It was completely irresponsible and in fact reprehensible that Sheldon Whitehouse would stoop so low as to chumming the media feeding frenzy on the Judge Kavanaugh nomination with an unvetted allegation that had yet to make its way to the appropriate investigating authorities.
As your next United States Senator, I assure you that I would never act in such a despicable and partisan manner to disrespect the United States Senate, the FBI, and the people of the State of Rhode Island.”