The White House specifically requested FBI interviews with four people: Kavanaugh’s high school friends Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth; Leland Keyser, who Ford claimed was at the party where the alleged assault took place; and Ramirez, whose lawyers provided a list of more than 20 additional witnesses to interview.
Full Answer
Oct 01, 2018 · The lawyer for Patrick J. Smyth, a former classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, confirmed on Monday that his client has spoken to the FBI as part of its investigation into ...
Oct 05, 2018 · The FBI was authorized by the White House to interview anyone it wanted to, but with a limited focus on two claims of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh: one by Dr. Ford, the other by Deborah Ramirez, sources familiar with the investigation said.
His lawyer, William Sullivan, said Tuesday that Garrett completed his FBI interview. The three most obvious names absent from that list are Kavanaugh, Ford and Swetnick.
Oct 04, 2018 · Mark Judge. The FBI interviewed Mark Judge, a friend of Kavanaugh’s from his high school days who Christine Blasey Ford said witnessed Kavanaugh’s alleged assault on her. Judge said previously ...
Judge Brett Kavanaugh testified in front of the Senate Judiciary committee regarding sexual assault allegations against him, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, on September 27. Photo by Gabriella Demczuk-Pool/Getty Images
Those four people–Judge, Ramirez, Keyser and Smyth–were believed to be the only people the White House initially allowed the FBI to interview. In a later statement, the president and his staff said the FBI was free to interview whomever it would like, so long as the investigation was completed by Friday.
When Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee requested President Donald Trump to direct the FBI to reopen its background investigation last week into the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he obliged. But Trump ordered the investigation to adhere to two criteria, as requested by GOP members of the committee: limit the scope and limit the time line.
But Trump ordered the investigation to adhere to two criteria, as requested by GOP members of the committee: limit the scope and limit the time line. The instructed time line was much clearer than what the instructed scope was. As per the deal Republican Senator Jeff Flake demanded in order to offer his future vote for Kavanaugh on ...
Chris Garrett: Garrett's nickname was "Squi," one of the names mentioned on Kavanaugh's calendar as present for the July 1, 1982, party. His lawyer, William Sullivan, said Tuesday that Garrett completed his FBI interview.
Leland Keyser: Keyser was a high school friend of Ford's who Ford said was at the house the night Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Keyser's attorney, Howard Walsh, told the Judiciary Committee in a letter that though Keyser "does not know Judge Kavanaugh and has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Ford," she "believes Dr. Ford's account." Walsh has since said Keyser met with the FBI on Saturday.
Liz Swisher, a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's, told CNN he perjured himself with many of his answers to the Judiciary Committee. Chad Ludington, another former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh, told CNN and the FBI that Kavanaugh got in a bar fight with someone that resulted in the arrest of a mutual friend.
The FBI interviewed Mark Judge , a friend of Kavanaugh’s from his high school days who Christine Blasey Ford said witnessed Kavanaugh’s alleged assault on her. Judge said previously that he had no memory of the incident. Julie Swetnick, a woman who came forward with extensive allegations against Kavanaugh, said in a statement to the Senate that Judge and Kavanaugh were present at a party where she was gang raped. Judge said through his lawyer that he “vehemently denies” Swetnick’s allegations.
Ford said Leland Keyser was at the gathering when Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Keyser said in a letter from her lawyer that she did not refute Ford, but did not remember the alleged incident.
In addition to his testimony before the Senate, Kavanaugh provided the committee with calendars he kept around the time of the incident Ford alleges. CNN reported this week that the FBI review was conducting interviews with a focus on other high school friends of Kavanaugh who he listed on his calendar as attending a July 1, 1982 get together.
She requested an interview with the FBI throughout the process, but her attorneys said she was never interviewed.
The Kavanaugh accuser's legal team called the FBI investigation a "sham.". Win McNamee/Getty Images. The attorneys representing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford described the FBI investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a "sham" after several senators cast on Friday their votes to move his nomination to the Senate floor for a final vote.
Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers, was not interviewed as part of the investigation, one of her attorneys, Debra Katz, told ABC News, calling the move a "grave injustice.".
Ford gave the Senate committee "very important information they needed to make a fully-informed vote, " Banks added. "And, unfortunately, because there was no fully comprehensive investigation, their vote really won't be fully informed.". (MORE: Protesters shout 'shame' at Democrat supporting Kavanaugh)
ABC News. Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, the attorneys representing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, spoke to ABC News about the investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Ford testified in front of the Senate Judicial Committee last week on the events of the alleged attack. The FBI did interview "a number of people who submitted sworn ...
FBI investigation into Kavanaugh was a 'sham,' say Ford's lawyers. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation on Saturday. The Kavanaugh accuser's legal team called the FBI investigation a "sham.".
Kavanaugh was confirmed to his lifetime appointment on the court on 6 October 2018 by a vote of 50-48 and helped cement a conservative majority on the powerful body.
In a statement to the Guardian,Whitehouse , the senator from Rhode Island who has led Democrats’ demand for answers on the investigation, said: “In its years-late response to our questions, the FBI leaned hard on the notion that this MOU limited its authority to be the FBI and investigate wrongdoing. Now that we have the MOU, it’s even harder to understand the Bureau’s excuses for ignoring credible information it received. Director Wray ought to be ready to answer my questions about this episode – I won’t stop asking until he does.”
The MOU, which was released in court documents in 2019 as part of Freedom of Information Act litigation brought against the US government by Buzzfeed, also does not explicitly state that the White House had the power to set the process parameters on any investigation. The MOU does seem to suggest that the White House had the authority to limit the FBI to investigate particular issues and questions.
It is not clear whether that claim is accurate, based on a close reading of the MOU, which was released in court records following a Freedom of Information Act request.
But an examination by the Guardian of the 2010 MOU, which was signed by the then attorney general, Eric Holder, and then White House counsel, Robert Bauer, does not make explicitly clear that the FBI was restricted in terms of how it would conduct its investigation.
The FBI closed its extended background check of Kavanaugh after four days and did not interview either Blasey Ford or Kavanaugh. The FBI also disclosed to the Senate this June – two years after questions were initially asked – that it had received 4,500 tips from the public during the background check and that it had shared all “relevant tips” with the White House counsel at that time. It is not clear whether those tips were ever investigated.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has accused longtime Kavanaugh friend Judge of being in the room with Kavanaugh during the alleged sexual assault. Judge, an alcoholic who has memorialized his drinking in a book, has publicly said through his lawyer he has no recollection of the incident described by Ford.
Smyth was a close friend of Kavanaugh's from Georgetown Prep, and was also identified by Ford as having been at the gathering. She recalled during her testimony "he was a tall and very nice person," who was "downstairs," and not involved in the attack on her.
The first Kavanaugh accuser hadn't heard from FBI investigators as of Oct. 2, according to a member of her legal team. Her lawyers wrote to the FBI on Oct. 2, saying there had been "no response to our offer for Dr. Ford to be interviewed."
Tyson reiterated comments that FBI Director Christopher Wray made in past congressional testimony: that the FBI serves as an "investigative service provider" for federal background investigations, and that its role in the Kavanaugh matter was to respond to requests from the White House counsel. The FBI has said repeatedly it was not conducting a criminal investigation into Kavanaugh's conduct.
The allegations nearly derailed his confirmation, and Kavanaugh has always fiercely denied them. Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed by a vote of 50-48.
Ex-Army Ranger weaponized military training during Capitol riot, judge says. (CNN) The FBI disclosed that it received more than 4,500 tips on a phone line in 2018 as part of a background investigation into then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and provided "relevant" ones to former President Donald Trump's White House counsel.
The lawyers said that the FBI had refused to interview Ford and "failed to act on the 4,500 tips it received about then-nominee Kavanaugh."
She said that pursuant to a memo of understanding between the Justice Department and the White House in 2010, the FBI does not reopen background investigations unless it is "specifically instructed to do so by the requesting entity."
A Democratic Senate staffer affiliated with Judiciary Committee acknowledged that the entire universe of tips was provided to senators at the time but that until the letter from the FBI last month, the senators were unaware that the FBI had engaged in a process to determine which tips were relevant. The staffer said that instead of providing the Senate with the FBI's analysis of the relevant tips, the White House sent all the tips to the senators who were only able to read them in a secure room without the benefit of taking notes.
Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in during his Senate judiciary committee hearing on 27 September 2018. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images. The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.
The FBI was called to investigate the allegations during the Senate confirmation process but was later accused by some Democratic senators of conducting an incomplete background check. For example, two key witnesses – Ford and Kavanaugh – were never interviewed as part of the inquiry.
Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence.
The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.
The supreme court justice was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford and faced several other allegations of misconduct following Ford’s harrowing testimony of an alleged assault when she and Kavanaugh were in high school. Kavanaugh denied the claims.
He also criticized FBI director Chris Wray, who Joe Biden has elected to remain in place, for not answering questions about the investigation. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
While it is unclear whether the FBI would re-open an investigation into Kavanaugh, who is now one of nine justices on the supreme court, the letter could push Garland to force the DOJ to respond to questions about the investigation into Kavanaugh.