In an op-ed published by The New York Times on Sunday, former FBI director James Comey defended the bureau’s ability to conduct an investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh but stressed that “if truth were the only goal, there would be no clock.”

Defending the agency’s ability to investigate, Comey noted that an investigation could be conducted into allegations that happened years ago because time has “very little” to do with memories.

“Yes, the alleged incident occurred 36 years ago,” he said. “But F.B.I. agents know time has very little to do with memory. They know every married person remembers the weather on their wedding day, no matter how long ago. Significance drives memory. They also know that little lies point to bigger lies. They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook are a flashing signal to dig deeper.”

Yet, while he noted that the FBI agent — which he said are full of “people who just want to figure out what’s true” —  are capable of doing their job, “it is idiotic to put a shot clock on the F.B.I.”

He added: “But it is better to give professionals seven days to find facts than have no professional investigation at all.”

Calling the process “deeply flawed” and pointing fingers at the political motives on both sides of the fence, Comey also noted that the whole process of investigation is not as hard as lawmakers think.

“If truth were the only goal, there would be no clock, and the investigation wouldn’t have been sought after the Senate Judiciary Committee already endorsed the nominee,” Comey wrote. “Instead, it seems that the Republican goal is to be able to say there was an investigation and it didn’t change their view, while the Democrats hope for incriminating evidence to derail the nominee.

Then driving his point home, Comey wrote this: “Although the process is deeply flawed, and apparently designed to thwart the fact-gathering process, the F.B.I. is up for this. It’s not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.”

Read the full op-ed here.

[image via screengrab]

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2QjdzZW