Senators will view FBI report on Kavanaugh Thursday

Senators are being told that they will get to review a supplemental FBI background investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday, but only one copy is being made available to senators under restricted conditions.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said that preparations are being made to review the report on Thursday.

Republicans are putting strict limits on the viewing.

{mosads}Only one copy is being made available to senators, and each party will take turns viewing it in one-hour increments, Durbin said.

“Get this — one copy! For the United States Senate,” he said. “That’s what we were told. And we were also that we would be given one hour for the Dems, one hour for the Republicans. Alternating.

“We tried to reserve some time to read it. That is ridiculous,” he said. “One copy?!”

“Bizarre, it doesn’t make any sense,” he added.

If all 100 senators decide to review the document and it takes each senator 30 minutes to peruse the document, it could take 50 hours for the entire chamber to examine it.

“Do the math,” said Durbin. “That’s a lot of time.”

A GOP spokesman for the Judiciary Committee declined to comment on the Democratic pushback.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he expects senators will be able to review the FBI report in the “secure compartmented information facility” in the Capitol Visitor Center, since the space is large enough to hold a large group of senators.

Corker said he has urged McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to make multiple copies of the report to senators.

Republican aides say that alternating a single physical copy of an FBI background report between Democrats and Republicans is usual practice for judicial nominees.

Judiciary Committee Republicans on Tuesday tweeted out a 2009 memorandum of understanding stating that photocopying or other reproduction of the FBI background reports is prohibited.

It also states that notes and memoranda derived from the contents of the FBI background investigation reports may be made and shall be destroyed or secured in the same manner as the reports themselves.

Reports are considered confidential Senate Judiciary Committee documents and unauthorized disclosure of them is subject to punishment under the Senate rules.