Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the FBI's investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has found no corroboration for the allegations against him.
"The fact is that these allegations have not been corroborated. None of the allegations have been corroborated by the seventh FBI investigation. Not in the new FBI investigation. Not anywhere," McConnell said.
The FBI conducted their seventh background check into Kavanaugh after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced near the end of his confirmation process. Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that before he could vote for Kavanaugh on the floor of the Senate, he would need the FBI to do a further investigation into the allegations. President Donald Trump ordered the FBI to conduct the investigation. Democrats complained that the White House and Republicans limited the scope of the FBI and prevented the bureau from conducting a full investigation.
Senators have come out and said the FBI's report provides no new evidence against Kavanaugh and that none of the allegations could be corroborated by eye-witnesses.
"So none of these last-minute allegations have been corroborated. As is confirmed by the seventh and latest FBI morning, neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of these allegations. No backup from any witnesses, including those specifically named as eyewitnesses by the people who brought the allegations in the first place," McConnell said. "Let me say that again: no backup from any witnesses, including those specifically named as eyewitnesses by the people who brought these allegations. In addition, one person has completely recanted their whole wild story. Another accuser went on television and backpedaled from many of their own ridiculous charges. So the facts do not support the allegations levied at Judge Kavanaugh's character."
Several Democratic senators that have come out against Kavanaugh said the judge doesn't deserve the presumption of innocence and one senator, Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) said it doesn't matter if Kavanaugh is innocent or guilty. McConnell blasted Democrats for this belief.
"Nobody is supposed to be guilty until proven innocent in the United States of America," McConnell said. "The senate should not set a fundamentally un-American precedent here. Judge Kavanaugh's right to basic fairness does not disappear just because some disagree with his judicial philosophy. Our society is not a place where uncorroborated allegations of misconduct from nearly 40 years ago, allegations which are vigorously disputed, can nullify someone's career or destroy their reputation."
The Senate majority leader also said, since there was no corroboration of the allegations, Democrats are now focusing on how Kavanaugh defended himself in his testimony.
"We will not be hoodwinked by those who have tried hard to smear this good man, to drag him through the mud. And when that didn't work, they turned on a dime and started claiming his real sin was he spoke up too forcefully in defense of his good name and his family," McConnell said. "Oh, they decided he doesn't have the judicial temperament because he aggressively defended his good name against this outrageous smear conducted in conjunction with Senate Democrats. Who among us would not have been outraged by having a lifetime record drug through the mud with accusations that cannot be proven?"