Liberal Forum

Report: White House Is Controlling Who FBI Interviews in Kavanaugh Investigation

When President Trump ordered the short FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh that Senator Jeff Flake abruptly demanded on Friday, it was not quite clear exactly how the bureau would proceed.

Would it restrict its inquiry — which the Senate Judiciary Committee specified would concentrate on “current credible allegations” — only to Christine Ford’s accusation of sexual assault, which was the focus of Thursday’s dramatic hearing?

Or would it dig into the full suite of allegations that have swirled around the judge over the last week?

The agency appears to be going in a third direction, but not necessarily because it wants to.

Just hours before President Trump authorized the new inquiry, the FBI had reached out to Deborah Ramirez, the second woman to come forward with recollections of alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh.

But on Saturday afternoon, NBC News reported that the White House was limiting the scope of the probe to cover only Ford and Ramirez — not Julie Swetnick, the third woman to come forward with allegations of misconduct against Kavanaugh.

“Instead of investigating Swetnick’s claims,” according to NBC, “the White House counsel’s office has given the FBI a list of witnesses they are permitted to interview,according to several people who discussed the parameters on the condition of anonymity.”

NBC also reported that certain other areas of investigation would also be off limits.

For instance, the agency cannot request employment records from a supermarket where key witness Mark Judge worked, which might help corroborate Ford’s account of running into him after her alleged assault.

And it cannot look into discrepancies between Kavanaugh’s account of only drinking moderately in college and that of at least one classmate, who has said he was lying.

On Saturday night, President Trump denied the NBC report.