Wouldn't a law enforcement investigation into a sex assault accusation normally be classified at some level though? Surely an in progress investigation isn't usually made public.
Nope. FBI didn't do a criminal investigation. Nothing you said irrelevant.
FBI reopened the background check and added reports of additional interviews. That's all they can do when there's no formal complaint of a crime. This is still all playing out based on a hand-scribbled statement she sent to Feinstein. No one has jurisdiction to do a criminal investigation. Period.
The rules of the Senate are what's relevant. The background file goes to the White House, then it's forwarded to the judicial committee for their consideration. There are also financial records reviews. The Office of Government Ethics, along with an ethics official from the relevant agency, reviews the financial disclosures. If they find conflicts of interest, they may help the candidate mitigate them.
This is still a confirmation, not a public trial. Accusations should not be used to air the nominee's dirty laundry publicly when there is no evidence the accusations are true.
I'm sure the gist of the background check will be blasted all over the news.
Republicans: The FBI exhaustively and professionally followed up on every available witness, and the interviews offered nothing new into Dr. Ford's allegations. The matter is now closed, with our apologies to Judge Kavanaugh.
Democrats: Kavanaugh is evil! He can't be allowed to be confirmed. Trump micromanaged the FBI's half-assed investigation and didn't;t talk to 25% of the people crawling out of the woodwork to support Ford and make new accusations against Kavanaugh. If he's confirmed, it will destroy our democracy!! We need another delay to find out whether or not the FBI did their job the way we arbitrarily decide is sufficient.