Did you know that the American Bar Association recommended that the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh be halted until after an FBI investigation can be completed? Only one problem with the story. It's not true.
Before Senator Jeffrey Flake made his vote for Kavanaugh contingent on an FBI investigation, CNN published a story by Manu Raju on August 27 about the ABA making a similar recommendation. It turned out the recommendation only came from the ABA president, not as an approved recommendation for that organization as a whole. So where is the correction?
It is not as if the information about the ABA not making that recommendation is hard to find. As Twitchy noted, the Senate Judiciary Committee tweeted on Friday setting setting this matter straight. Yet still no facts first correction from CNN. They seem to be sticking by their original uncorrected story, American Bar Association: Delay Kavanaugh until FBI investigates assault allegations:
The American Bar Association is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to halt the consideration of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until an FBI investigation is completed into the sexual assault allegations that have roiled his nomination.
Sorry, Manu. Only the ABA president made that recommendation. It was not approved by the ABA as a whole.
In a strongly worded letter obtained by CNN Thursday, the organization said it is making the extraordinary request "because of the ABA's respect for the rule of law and due process under law," siding with concerns voiced by Senate Democrats since Christine Blasey Ford's decades-old allegations became public.
Again, it was not the organization making that request. Only its president.
In the letter, the ABA president says the Senate must remain "an institution that will reliably follow the law and not politics," saying a "thorough FBI investigation will demonstrate its commitment to a Supreme Court that is above reproach."
You got that part right about the ABA president but earlier you claimed it was the ABA itself which was not true. Here is the clarification from Twitchy which reveals that it was only the ABA president and not the organization itself making the request:
The Senate Judiciary Committee released this letter on Friday from the ABA stating that Robert Carlson, the President of the American Bar Association who wrote the letter, didn’t get the it approved by the committee that actually votes on this sort of thing and that the ABA’s rating of Judge Kavanaugh “is not affected”:
“The correspondence by Robert Carlson, President of the American Bar Association...was not received by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary prior to its issuance...The ABA’s rating for Judge Kavanaugh is not affected by Mr. Carlson’s letter.” pic.twitter.com/d8oYYGFcK1
— Senate Judiciary (@senjudiciary) September 28, 2018
As you can see, the time on that Tweet is on Friday afternoon, plenty of time for Manu Raju to have found out about it and to have issued a correction on his story by now. Waiting...Waiting...
