DENVER – One of the attorneys for Deborah Ramirez, the Boulder woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct that allegedly happened while they were in college, says he is concerned about the scope of the FBI background investigation into her allegations and those made by other women against Kavanaugh.
John Clune, who is one of the attorneys for Ramirez, confirmed in a series of tweets Tuesday that Ramirez was interviewed by FBI agents on Saturday and that she and her attorneys provided the agency with more than 20 names of witnesses who might be able to corroborate her story.
Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of thrusting his genitals in her face while at a gathering at Yale University while the two were freshmen. Her allegations were first published by the New Yorker, which Ramirez spoke with exclusively.
Since then, several Yale classmates have come forward publicly to say that Kavanaugh’s characterizations of his drinking while in college were untruthful when he spoke in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations made by Ramirez and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a get-together in high school.
Clune said Tuesday he was not sure if the FBI had reached out to any of the witnesses Ramirez and her attorneys identified. It was also unclear to what extent the FBI was interviewing other people who had come forward.
“Although we do not know the status of the investigation, we are not aware of the FBI affirmatively reaching out to any of those witnesses,” Clune said in a statement Tuesday posted to Twitter. “Though we appreciated the agents who responded on Sunday, we have great concern that the FBI is not conducting—or not being permitted to conduct—a serious investigation.”
Attorneys for Ford wrote to the FBI with their own similar concerns that witnesses weren’t being interviewed, the LA Times reported Tuesday afternoon.
The White House on Tuesday said the FBI is allowed to interview anyone it would like in the new background investigation as long as it is done by the end of the week, but President Trump added that he wanted the investigation done quickly.
But he also said it was “a scary time for young men” regarding Kavanaugh’s denials of the allegations levied against him.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Kavanaugh of misleading senators during his testimony last week, while Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accused Democrats of trying to stop Kavanaugh from being confirmed no matter what. He also said that the Senate would vote this week, though President Trump wasn’t as certain.
“Hopefully, they’ll have a vote by the end of the week and it will be a positive vote, but it will be dependent on what comes back from the FBI,” Trump said.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
