What's missing from the FBI's investigation into Brett Kavanaugh?
WASHINGTON — The FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was the judge's seventh FBI background check. The information from the five-day investigation was added to Kavanaugh's background file, but some details remain unclear.
Senators received the 46-page report Thursday after it was delivered to the White House at 2:30 a.m. The pages include an interview with Kavanaugh's friend Mark Judge, who according to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was a key witness to her assault.
"Mark came over and jumped on the bed twice while Brett was on top of me," she testified last week.
The FBI is said to have interviewed Judge for three hours. They also spoke with Chris Garrett, whose nickname was "Squi," as well as Leland Keyser, Patrick "P.J." Smyth and Tim Gaudette.
FBI agents also interviewed Deborah Ramirez, who alleges Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at Yale University in the 1980s. In total, nine people were interviewed by the FBI, three of whom have not been identified.
However critics charged that the bureau did not conduct a thorough investigation. Notably absent from the witness list are Kavanaugh and Ford.
"I think that it would have been a good thing to do, as a capstone to the follow-up of the special inquiry, to go ahead and interview her and get her statement on the record to the FBI," said Chris Swecker, a former assistant director of the FBI.
Special inquiries are different from FBI criminal investigations, so the White House counsel set the parameters of what FBI agents examined. White House counsel Don McGahn has also been shepherding Kavanaugh through the nomination process.
"I think it's normal to have the White House set the parameters of a follow-up based on allegations that have been made and to tell them stick to these allegations, don't go far afield about drinking in college," Swecker said.
The Kavanaugh confirmation has been compared to that of Clarence Thomas in 1991, when Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment. Both Thomas and Hill were interviewed by the FBI.
