The FBI will start its one-week investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who faces sexual assault allegations from three women, with interviews of four witnesses.
“Two people familiar with the matter” disclosed the initial interviews.
But for now, there are strict limits on the inquiry. One of the three women, Julie Swetnick, will not be interviewed.
Kavanaugh classmates who have spoken of his drinking and partying — claims denied aggressively by Kavanaugh in his Thursday testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee — are not on the list. Nor are those who could help verify the date of the claimed first assault, on Professor Christine Blasey Ford, by speaking about the whereabouts of Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge in summer 1982.
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The FBI investigation was arranged in a surprise twist in the Committee on Friday. The White House and Republicans on the Committee had hoped to send Kavanaugh’s testimony to the full Senate with no conditions, despite the compelling account by Professor Christine Blasey Ford — the first of the three accusers — on Thursday before the judge’s controversial response.
However, GOP Senator Jeff Flake, one of three undecided Republicans over Kavanaugh’s confirmation, said he was only voting Yes if there was an investigation — a Democratic request which had been rejected by Committee Republicans earlier in the day.
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The scope of the investigation has been unclear. The lawyer for Kavanaugh’s second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, said Saturday that she has been contacted by the FBI: “She has agreed to cooperate with their investigation. Out of respect for the integrity of the process, we will have no further comment at this time.”
However, the attorney for Julie Swetnick confirmed the FBI has not made an approach.
Ford says Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, groped her, and tried to remove her clothes at a small high school party in 1982. Ramirez says the nominee exposed his penis to her during a party at Yale University in their freshman year in 1983, and Swetnick claims Kavanaugh was part of a group who drugged and gang-raped teenage girls at parties.
In addition to Deborah Ramirez, the initial witnesses to be interviewed are Judge — whom Christine Blasey Ford says was in the room when she was assaulted by Kavanaugh — and Leland Keyser and Patrick Smyth, who were downstairs. All three — including Judge, who refused to appear before the Judiciary Committee, have said they will cooperate with the FBI.
The extent of the investigation is controlled by the White House, working in concert with Senate Republicans, said the “two people familiar with the matter”, one of them a senior Administration official.
The White House counsel’s office gave the FBI a list of witnesses they are permitted to interview, according to “several” sources. A “White House official” confirmed that Julie Swetnick will not be interviewed.
Democrats were not included on a call between the White House and Republican staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Saturday, “according to an official familiar with the discussion”.
Every hair on my body stood straight up at this cartoon from @chronicleherald pic.twitter.com/IFPda85rK1
— Sulome Anderson (@SulomeAnderson) September 29, 2018
But Donald Trump denied that he was limiting the inquiry, including the blocking of any investigation of Julie Swetnick’s claims. “I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion,” he told reporters on Saturday.
Trump maintained that the investigation — blocked by his allies for days before Flake’s decisive intervention on Friday — “will be a blessing in disguise” for a “good man” and a “great judge”.
NBC News incorrectly reported (as usual) that I was limiting the FBI investigation of Judge Kavanaugh, and witnesses, only to certain people. Actually, I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion. Please correct your reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2018
Meanwhile, Trump tried to turn attention from Kavanaugh onto “the ruthless and outrageous tactics of the Democrat Party”. He renewed the partisan — and unsupported — attack that Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter from Ford in a political assault on the Supreme Court nominee.