FBI Kavanaugh probe won’t look at Jewish woman’s accusations — report
White House said to be controlling whom the agency can interview and will not include Julie Swetnick, who alleged that the Supreme Court nominee fondled girls, drank excessively
The White House has reportedly put constraints on an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and won’t include a probe into claims made by a Jewish woman that the judge sexually assaulted teenage girls in high school.
According to NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, only claims made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez will be looked at, and not those made by Julie Swetnick.
NBC News reported that the Trump administration’s counsel has provided the FBI with a list of witnesses the agency can investigate.
The news outlet, which cited several unnamed sources, said the move, while not unusual in normal circumstances, could place considerable constraints on the high-profile probe.
US President Donald Trump said late Saturday that the NBC story was incorrect and that the FBI could interview anyone it wanted.
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
Trump ordered the FBI on Friday to reopen Kavanaugh’s background investigation after several women accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
Senate leaders agreed to delay a final vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination to allow for a one-week FBI investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee has said the probe should be limited to “current credible allegations” against Kavanaugh and be finished by next Friday.
Leaving the hearing Friday, Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said it was his understanding there would be an FBI investigation of “the outstanding allegations, the three of them,” but Republicans have not said whether that was their understanding as well.
Swetnick accused Kavanaugh and high school friend Mark Judge of excessive drinking and inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Kavanaugh has called her accusations a “joke” and Judge has said he “categorically” denies the allegations.
Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said Saturday afternoon that his client had not been contacted by the FBI but is willing to fully cooperate with investigators. He said the NBC report, if true, was “outrageous.”
If true, this is outrageous. Why are Trump and his cronies in the Senate trying to prevent the American people from learning the truth? Why do they insist on muzzling women with information submitted under penalty of perjury? Why Ramirez but not my client? https://t.co/TwoAKXDWrH
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 29, 2018
Among other things, Swetnick said that Kavanaugh had fondled and grabbed girls, attempted to remove their clothing and made “crude sexual comments” at house parties in the Maryland suburb near Washington, DC, where they attended school. She also said she “became aware of efforts” by Kavanaugh, Judge, now an author and journalist, and others “to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be ‘gang raped.’”
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that it had contacted dozens of former classmates and colleagues of Swetnick, but nobody had any knowledge of her claims or would publicly back her allegations.
Avenatti told the Forward that his client is Jewish. Swetnick is the niece of Helene Moglen, a professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has written about gender and sexual harassment in the academy, the Forward reported. Swetnick, an information technology specialist, is the daughter of the late Elaine Moglen Swetnick, who worked for the Atomic Energy Commission, and Martin Swetnik, a retired physicist, the Forward reported.
Ramirez’s lawyer, John Clune, said FBI agents had been in contact Saturday and she has agreed to cooperate. Ramirez has said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in the early 1980s when they were Yale students.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said the Senate set the scope and duration of the investigation and that the White House is letting the FBI agents do what they are trained to do.”
The FBI conducts background checks for federal nominees, but the agency does not make judgments on the credibility or significance of allegations. The investigators will compile information about Kavanaugh’s past and provide their findings to the White House and include the information in Kavanaugh’s background file, which is available to senators.
Trump told reporters Saturday that “the FBI, as you know, is all over talking to everybody” and said “this could be a blessing in disguise.”
“They have free rein. They’re going to do whatever they have to do, whatever it is they do. They’ll be doing things that we have never even thought of,” he said. “And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine.”
However, the Wall Street Journal reported that a person familiar with the matter said the FBI would not have total freedom and the probe was being “is being “tightly controlled” by the White House.
Kavanaugh and Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers, testified publicly before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Judge, who Ford says was in the room when a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, said that he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that will “confidentially investigate” sexual misconduct allegations against him and Kavanaugh. Judge has also denied Ford’s allegations.
Lawyers for P.J. Smyth and Leland Ingham Keyser, two others who Ford said were in the house when she was attacked, have said their clients are willing to cooperate “fully” with the FBI’s investigation.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee from Rhode Island, said he expects the FBI would provide adequate staffing for the investigation, with teams working in parallel to investigate separate allegations. Agents should get support from the Judiciary Committee for rapid immunity and subpoena decisions, he said.
Last week, Trump tweeted that “if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed” with local police. On Thursday night, he attacked Democrats, saying they have a “search and destroy strategy” and said “this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct and resist.”
After Ford appeared before the Judiciary Committee, Trump said her testimony was “very compelling” and that she appeared to be “certainly a very credible witness.”
In the last week, Trump has spoken repeatedly with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has scolded Trump about comments that appeared to cast doubt on Ford’s claim, according to two Republicans familiar with the discussions but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
McConnell urged Trump to support Kavanaugh but to avoid attacking his accusers, warning that he was in charge of counting votes and those kinds of disparaging remarks could cause him to lose Republican senators whose votes could be key to confirming Kavanaugh, including Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, they said.
The Times of Israel Community.