memeorandum: Sen. Chuck Grassley asks FBI to probe false allegation against Kavanaugh (Stephen Dinan/Washington Times)

11:25 AM ET, September 30, 2018

Top Items:

White House limits scope of the FBI's investigation into the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh — The FBI has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, a White House official confirmed to NBC News. — WASHINGTON — The White House is limiting the scope …

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Sen. Chuck Grassley asks FBI to probe false allegation against Kavanaugh — The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the FBI Saturday to investigate a man who made an unfounded rape claim against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and then later recanted, saying the man had acted in bad faith.

Discussion: Associated Press

Associated Press:

3rd Kavanaugh accuser has history of legal disputes — WASHINGTON (AP) — Julie Swetnick, one of the women who has publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, has an extensive history of involvement in legal disputes, including a lawsuit in which an ex-employer accused …

NBC News:

Trump: No limits on FBI's investigation into allegations against Brett Kavanaugh — The FBI has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, a White House official confirmed to NBC News. — FBI begins new Brett Kavanaugh background investigation

Discussion: Politico, Law & Crime, Axios, POLITICUSUSA and Splinter

New York Times:

Details of F.B.I.'s Kavanaugh Inquiry Show Its Restricted Range — WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Saturday that the F.B.I. will have “free rein” to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, but the emerging contours of the inquiry showed its limited scope.

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
White House Directs FBI to Interview First Two Kavanaugh Accusers, But Not the Third

Discussion: HuffPost, Mediaite, Big League Politics, CNN, Vox and USA Today

Lauren Egan / NBC News:
Trump asks if Feinstein leaked allegation against Kavanaugh, says FBI probe may be ‘blessing in disguise’

Discussion: RedState

Alexandra Hutzler / Newsweek:

Kavanaugh Confirmation: Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy Says We're Seeing The ‘Death and Decline of Democracy’ — Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned high schoolers, as the toxic fight over confirming Brett Kavanaugh to replace him on the court continues …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Washington Post:

Amy Klobuchar's big Brett Kavanaugh moment earned rave reviews. But is it what Democrats demand for 2020? — It may not have been the most pivotal moment of Brett Kavanaugh's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, but for many it was the most cringeworthy.

Discussion: ABC News, Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones

Kris Schneider / ABC News:

If Kavanaugh confirmed, ‘House will have to’ investigate if Senate doesn't: Democratic rep — The leading Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said that if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, “the House will have to investigate” allegations of sexual assault and perjury if the Senate doesn't “properly” do so.

Discussion: Political Wire, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Daily Caller

Victoria McGrane / BostonGlobe.com:

Warren says she will ‘take a hard look at running for president’ — HOLYOKE - US Senator Elizabeth Warren made her most definitive indication to date that she is mulling a run for the White House in 2020, telling a town hall crowd Saturday that she will take a “hard look at running for president” after the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Discussion: CBS News, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Big League Politics, Joe.My.God., Splinter and Axios

Jacqueline Klimas / Politico:
White House not ‘micromanaging’ FBI, Sarah Sanders says

Discussion: Axios and The Daily Beast

CNN:
Classmate: Kavanaugh drank heavily - CNN Video

Discussion: The Hill, The Independent, ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and ABC News

Alexander Burns / New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren Says 2020 Presidential Run Is On the Table

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Week and Politico

Associated Press: Sen. Elizabeth Warren to take hard look at presidential run after midterms

Ariel Edwards-Levy / HuffPost:
Fewer Believe Brett Kavanaugh Than His Accuser, Poll Finds

Discussion: today.yougov.com and Political Wire

Mara Gay / New York Times: Make My Sexual Assault Count

Nathan J. Robinson / Current Affairs:

How We Know Kavanaugh Is Lying — This man should not serve another day as any kind of judge... On Thursday morning, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford detailed under oath her claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attacked her and sexually violated her when he was 17.

Caitlin Dickerson / New York Times:

Hundreds of Migrant Children Quietly Moved to a Tent Camp on the Texas Border — In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home …

Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast:

Kanye West Delivers Pro-Trump Rant on ‘SNL,’ Gets Booed By Audience — The rapper/entrepreneur delivered a pro-Trump speech in a red MAGA hat after his final performance—one that didn't make it to air. — Following his performance of “Ghost Town” during the 44th season premiere of Saturday Night Live …

Discussion: The Week, Spectator USA, The Guardian, Press Association and USA Today

Rick Montgomery / Stars & Stripes:

Judge's ruling may force Kansas Army officer's adopted Korean daughter to leave US — A retired Kansas Army officer has lost his fight in federal court over his adopted daughter's citizenship status, meaning she may have to return to her native South Korea.

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

An Age Divided by Sex — The Kavanaugh nightmare shows how the competing moralisms of conservatism and feminism are tearing us apart. — The Year of Our Lord 1982, upon whose disputed summertime events a Supreme Court nomination now hinges, was part of the Reagan era but not a particularly conservative year.

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:

Kavanaugh's hearings are a national disaster — and the worst is yet to come — This is a golden age for cynics. You will rarely go wrong in assuming an absence of decency and courage in the political class. However low the bar is set, it will not be low enough.

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Capitol Hill Ralph Club — Brett Kavanaugh faces his moment of truth in a town that doesn't care about truth. — WASHINGTON — I never thought it could be as brutal. — The same Republican gargoyles who once tore Anita Hill limb from limb knew they had to tread gingerly, with women at the barricades.

Sarah Hepola / New York Times: Kavanaugh and the Blackout Theory

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

‘It breeds resistance’: Even among conservatives, Trump's use of presidential power causes alarm — President Trump's exercise of his executive powers, particularly in matters of national security, is increasingly unsettling an array of legal scholars, including conservatives …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Salena Zito / Washington Examiner:

The politicians we deserve — In the spring of 2011, then-governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana announced he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination, ending months of excitement among conservatives around his possible run. His family's reservations under the spotlight far outweighed …

Doree Lewak / New York Post:

Israeli student at Columbia says she's being bullied by Palestinian group … As an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Ofir Dayan served in hostile territory in Gaza and Lebanon. But, the undergrad told The Post, nothing prepared her for life at Columbia University.

New York Times:

Kavanaugh Borrows From Trump's Playbook on White Male Anger — Tony Gardner, a 60-year-old retired pipe fitter from Robbinsdale, Minn., flipped on Fox News on Thursday to watch Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh indignantly defend himself against an accusation of sexual assault from decades ago.