Much has been written about the dangers posed by Project 2025 to the foundations of the American system of government. Missing from this coverage, however, is the fact that its ideas are not new, as many of its proposals and plans have taken root in autocratic actions by state governments and in the previous administration.
At the core of Project 2025 is a presidency that reigns supreme, bending independent agencies, including the Department of Justice, to its will. A stark example of how this has already worked is found in a new report revealing what happened in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump secretly limited the FBI’s supplemental investigation into allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers.
During nominee Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearing, Dr. Ford testified that when they were both high school students, he locked her in a bedroom, climbed on top of her, put his hand over her mouth to stop her screams from being heard, touched her body, and proceeded to try to remove her clothes. Following her testimony and in response to the ensuing outcry, the Senate Judiciary Committee requested further investigation.
The White House acquiesced to a brief additional period of time for the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation. Approximately a week later, the nominee was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by the smallest margin of votes since 1881.
A full picture of that supplemental investigation has finally emerged in the release of Unworthy of Reliance: The Flawed Supplemental Background Investigation Into Sexual-Assault Allegations Against Justice Brett Kavanaugh by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The report chronicles the Senate Judiciary Committee’s six-year effort to understand the scope of the FBI’s supplemental investigation, revealing it to be a sham, fueled by lies and hidden from public view through the will of the former President. Since Trump left the White House, the investigation has also been hampered by government officials, likely fearful that the underlying facts would poorly reflect on an FBI constrained by an administration focused solely on confirming its nominee.
Project 2025 specifically calls for the FBI to be “politically accountable to the President.” As Unworthy of Reliance reveals, that is exactly what happened in 2018—the FBI failed in its supplemental investigation because the White House controlled what it could do.
The report offers context to the artificial rush that occurred to confirm a new Associate Justice who would likely have been disqualified had a proper investigation been conducted. It also describes three key ways that the prior administration was able to gaslight the United States Senate, the media, and the American public.
First, the White House repeatedly lied to the public and the media by stating that the FBI had unfettered discretion to conduct an independent supplemental investigation. Even as the former President explicitly stated that the FBI had “free rein” and was “talking to everybody,” email correspondence between the White House and the FBI revealed the strict controls placed on the FBI at that time.
Second, according to the report, the FBI received more than 4,500 tips, none of which were investigated, yet all were forwarded to the White House as instructed. Instead of developing a plan to prioritize and investigate those tips that indicated potential corroborating information, the White House provided its own names of the few witnesses the FBI was allowed to interview and even limited the areas of inquiry.
Third, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in 2018 that the supplemental investigation was “consistent with the standard process for such investigations.” Similarly, White House Counsel Don McGahn stated that the supplemental investigation was being conducted “by the book.” For years thereafter, however, the Senate sought to determine what those practices and procedures actually were, while the FBI Director reiterated the Bureau’s compliance with unidentified procedures without producing any information to address the query.
Critically, neither the White House nor the FBI revealed that there were no longstanding playbooks or procedures for conducting such supplemental investigations. In fact, the evasion—the chief tactic for avoiding a direct response for years—only ended when the Senate finally obtained information that revealed what the FBI and the Trump administration had long been hiding. Supplemental FBI investigations of nominees were considered an area of limited inquiry controlled by the White House.
Unworthy of Reliance demonstrates the depths of the effort that was undertaken to create an illusion behind which the slim majority of senators willing to vote to give Mr. Kavanaugh a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court could hide. Dr. Ford, other potential victims, and, indeed, the rest of the country were mere collateral damage in the race to cement an appointment to the Supreme Court that met the President’s litmus test for nominees.
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership reveals a comprehensive attack on constitutional protections and fundamental liberties and freedoms that took centuries to achieve. It seeks to smash these protections in a unified blitzkrieg that will eliminate government as we know it.
The Kavanaugh nomination process serves as a stark illustration of the dangers ahead.