The Judiciary Committee, which has finished confirmation hearings for Kavanagh, is scheduled to vote next Thursday on whether to recommend that Kavanaugh’s nomination be confirmed by the full Senate. The California Democrat said in a statement that she ‘‘received information from an individual concerning the nomination.’’ She said the person ‘‘strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision.’’ WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday she has notified federal investigators about information she received — and won’t disclose publicly — concerning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Advertisement Feinstein’s statement that she has ‘‘referred the matter to federal investigative authorities’’ jolted Capitol Hill and threatens to disrupt what has been a steady path toward confirmation for Kavanaugh by Republicans eager to see the conservative judge on the court. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment. Feinstein declined to answer questions outside the hearing room, and other senators’ offices largely deferred to the ranking member. Democratic senators on the panel met privately Wednesday evening and discussed the information, according to two Senate aides who were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly but spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House questioned the timing of Feinstein’s move, calling it an ‘‘11th hour attempt to delay his confirmation.’’ ‘‘Throughout his confirmation process, Judge Kavanaugh has had 65 meetings with senators — including with Senator Feinstein — sat through over 30 hours of testimony, addressed over 2,000 questions in a public setting and additional questions in a confidential session. Not until the eve of his confirmation has Sen. Feinstein or anyone raised the specter of new ‘information’ about him,’’ said Kerri Kupec, a White House spokesperson. Kupec added that the FBI has vetted Kavanaugh ‘‘thoroughly and repeatedly’’ during his career in government and the judiciary. Advertisement Democrats don’t have the votes to block Kavanaugh’s nomination, if Republicans hold unified, but are fighting it and decrying the process that Republicans used to compile his government records for review. At the committee Thursday, Republicans brushed aside a flurry of Democratic attempts to delay the consideration of Kavanaugh or subpoena more documents about his past work, sticking with a schedule that could see him confirmed by Oct. 1. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut protested that the nomination will be ‘‘tainted’’ and ‘‘stained’’ by the unusual process for vetting the nominee. ‘‘We lack the time. We lack the documents.’’ He called it a ‘‘badly broken process.’’ Feinstein had sought a subpoena for documents from Kavanaugh’s time as Bush’s staff secretary. She said senators ‘‘should be able to see this record’’ and wondered, ‘‘What in Judge Kavanaugh’s records are Republicans hiding?’’ The Republicans have declined to pursue Kavanaugh’s staff secretary documents, saying it would be too cumbersome. They rejected Feinstein’s motion and several others, including motions to subpoena documents and witnesses and a motion to adjourn. Chairman Chuck Grassley set the panel’s vote on Kavanaugh for Sept. 20. New documents released ahead of Thursday’s hearing included Kavanaugh’s 263-page written response to questions from senators, along with dozens of files from the judge’s work in the George W. Bush White House that had been available to senators only on a ‘‘committee confidential basis.’’ Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey made the Bush documents public. Advertisement Among the details in the new written responses, Kavanaugh says he would have shaken the hand of a school shooting victim’s father during a break in last week’s Senate hearing had he recognized him before being whisked away by security detail. The 28 new ‘‘committee confidential’’ documents released by Booker, meanwhile, are from Kavanaugh’s time in the White House counsel’s office during the George W. Bush administration and deal with his work on judicial nominations. The documents show Kavanaugh’s involvement in Bush’s nomination of Charles Pickering to an appellate court in the South as Pickering faced questions about his views on race relations. Kavanaugh had indicated in 2006 testimony that he was not substantially involved in the nomination. In releasing a new batch of committee confidential documents about Kavanaugh, Booker, the New Jersey Democrat, was repeating a tactic that could prompt a review from the Senate Ethics Committee. Booker is being criticized by his GOP colleagues and outside groups for releasing the documents. Last week, he released some documents that were later made public by the committee, but also others that weren't. Wednesday’s disclosure brings the total to 75. The conservative group Judicial Watch delivered a letter Wednesday to the Senate Ethics Committee seeking an investigation. It says Booker violated Senate rules against disclosing confidential documents and could face Senate expulsion. Booker has welcomed the fight. He says the documents about Kavanaugh’s work ‘‘raise more serious and concerning questions’’ about his honesty during his testimony before the committee. Advertisement At issue has been the unprecedented process the Senate Judiciary Committee used for gathering documents on Kavanaugh, an appellate court judge who is President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy on the court.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — The senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee referred information involving Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, to federal investigators on Thursday, but the senator declined to make public what the matter involved. Two officials familiar with the matter say the incident involved possible sexual misconduct between Judge Kavanaugh and a woman when they were both in high school. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. The statement by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California came a week before the Judiciary Committee is to vote on his nomination. “I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” Ms. Feinstein said in a statement. “That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities.” The information came in July in a letter, which was first sent to the office of Representative Anna Eshoo, Democrat of California, and accuses the judge of sexual misconduct toward the letter’s author, a person familiar with the letter confirmed.<doc-sep>Other Democratic senators on the committee — who have, for weeks, been furious with the GOP over how they’ve proceeded with Kavanaugh’s nomination — declined to comment on the letter’s contents and the uncertainty that it caused. But privately, some Democrats had asked Feinstein about the letter’s substance as chatter about its existence emerged within the last week or so, prompting the last-minute meeting just off the Senate chamber.<doc-sep>
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein of California, said Thursday that she has referred a letter concerning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to federal authorities. "I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court," Feinstein said. "That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities." Feinstein's announcement came shortly after the committee set a date to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination over the objections of Democrats. Later Thursday, The Washington Post, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the FBI did not plan to open an investigation. The law enforcement agency included the letter as an update to Kavanaugh's background check provided to the White House, a spokesperson for the bureau told CNBC. Feinstein's disclosure came during the last weeks of Kavanaugh's confirmation process, and followed a report Wednesday night in the investigative news outlet The Intercept that first disclosed the existence of the letter. According to the outlet, the letter is rumored to include details about an incident involving Kavanaugh that took place during his time at Georgetown Preparatory School in Maryland. The incident involved possible sexual misconduct between Kavanaugh and a woman who was also in high school at the time, two officials familiar with the matter told The New York Times. CNBC has not independently confirmed the contents of the letter. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Buzzfeed News earlier in the day that the letter had been referred to the FBI. A source familiar with the matter confirmed Durbin's comments to CNBC Thursday. The letter was reportedly written by someone affiliated with Stanford University. It was sent to Rep. Anna Eshoo, who represents California's 14th District, before being passed along to Feinstein. A spokesperson for Eshoo's office declined to comment on the matter. "Our office has a confidentiality policy regarding constituent casework," the spokesperson told NBC News. Feinstein has not shared details about the letter beyond her statement Thursday, and no other senators on the Judiciary Committee have been permitted to see it, according to reports. The woman who is the subject of the letter is reportedly represented by Debra Katz, a whistleblower attorney who has been described as "Washington's top attorney for women who want to fight back" in a profile in the magazine The Washingtonian.