Lawyers for two of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers said Tuesday that the FBI is not interviewing witnesses and following leads that would support their accusations of sexual abuse.
Attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford said in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that agents have yet to contact her about her allegation that a drunken Kavanaugh groped her and tried to take her clothes off in 1982 when they were high school students.
The controversy surrounding the Kavanaugh nomination ahead of November congressional elections — in which Republicans will battle to keep control of Congress — is threatening to derail Trump’s push to get a conservative-minded majority on the top court ahead of the vote.
The lawyers, Michael Bromwich, and Debra Katz, also questioned an apparent FBI decision not to interview Kavanaugh and expressed concern that the agency was not following up on witnesses and evidence they identified for the FBI.
“Despite these efforts, we have received no response from anyone involved in this investigation, and no response to our offer for Dr. Ford to be interviewed,” they said in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and General Counsel Dana Boente.
In a separate statement on Twitter, John Clune, who represents another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, said FBI agents interviewed her on Sunday and accepted a list of more than 20 witnesses who can support her allegations.
But he said they are not following up at all on Ramirez’s account that Kavanaugh thrust his genitals in her face, forcing her to touch them without her consent, during an alcohol-fuelled party when they were students at Yale University in the mid-1980s.
“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 tweeted statement.
“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.”
The statement came amid questions over how much latitude President Donald Trump has allowed the FBI in its investigation into three women’s allegations of sexual misconduct and heavy drinking by Kavanaugh in the 1980s.
Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to follow up the allegations in less than a week before the Senate is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s joining the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh has vigorously denied the women’s allegations.
On Monday Trump said he had told the FBI to “do what they have to do to get to the answer,” but that he would also like it to go quickly.
Comment here