--- title: Trump Says He'll Defer to Grassley on FBI Kavanaugh Probe description: Trump said he would defer to Grassley on whether to open an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. canonical: https://time.com/5410272/trump-grassley-fbi-kavanaugh/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-28T18:41:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:35:20.684Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says He'll Defer to Sen. Grassley on FBI Kavanaugh Probe og:description: The FBI can’t open the investigation without a formal White House request og:url: https://time.com/5410272/trump-grassley-fbi-kavanaugh/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57f71f86972f69ae/69893b74fb4eac63a9897c73/trump-grassley.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump-grassley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says He'll Defer to Sen. Grassley on FBI Kavanaugh Probe twitter:description: The FBI can’t open the investigation without a formal White House request twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57f71f86972f69ae/69893b74fb4eac63a9897c73/trump-grassley.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He'll Defer to Sen. Grassley on FBI Kavanaugh Probe by [Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg Contributor Sep 28, 2018 6:41 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks while meeting with President of the Republic of Chile, Sebastian Pinera during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28, 2018. President Donald Trump speaks while meeting with President of the Republic of Chile, Sebastian Pinera during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28, 2018.Andrew Harrer - Pool/Getty Images by [Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Shannon Pettypiece / Bloomberg Contributor Sep 28, 2018 6:41 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he would defer to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on whether to open an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “I will be totally reliant on what Senator Grassley and the group decides to do,” about reopening the background investigation, Trump said Friday at the White House. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to send Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate floor amid a call by GOP Senator Jeff Flake for a one-week FBI investigation before the full chamber takes a vote. The FBI can’t open the investigation without a formal White House request. Asked whether he had a message for wavering Republican senators, Trump said he had “no message.” “They have to do what they think is right,” Trump said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5410272/trump-grassley-fbi-kavanaugh/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5410272/trump-grassley-fbi-kavanaugh/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He'll Defer to Sen. 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