Details on F.B.I. Inquiry Into Kavanaugh Draw Fire From Democrats - The New York Times

said some of the 4,500 tips it received about Justice Brett Kavanaugh were given to the Trump White House, leading some Democrats to call the process a sham.

has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice’s background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House.

In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an F.B.I.

Kavanaugh’s past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear.

Whitehouse said the F.B.I.’s response showed that the F.B.I.’s handling of the accusations into misconduct by Mr.

Whitehouse and six of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee replied to the F.B.I.’s letter on Wednesday with demands for additional details on the agreement with the White House that governed the inquiry.

“Your letter confirms that the F.B.I.’s tip line was a departure from past practice and that the F.B.I.

Trump put his handling of Justice Kavanaugh into stark terms, asking “Where would he be without me.

But in addition to offering shows of support, the Trump White House carefully controlled the investigations into Mr.

Ultimately, 10 witnesses were interviewed by the F.B.I., according to the F.B.I.’s recent letter.

Kavanaugh themselves were never interviewed by the F.B.I

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who signed Wednesday’s letter to the F.B.I., called the process “an injustice in fact orchestrated by the White House under Donald Trump, an injustice that frankly was a disservice to the F.B.I.”

Ford, said in a statement that the nation “deserved better” when it came to the inquiry into Justice Kavanaugh