‘Let the FBI do its job’
White House staying out of Kavanaugh probe, say Trump officials
THE White House is not ‘micromanaging’ a new FBI background check of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, senior Trump administration officials have insisted.
Donald Trump initially opposed such an inquiry in the face of sexual misconduct claims against Mr Kavanaugh.
However, the US president and Senate Republican leaders agreed to an inquiry after Senator Jeff Flake made it clear he would not vote to confirm Mr Kavanaugh without one. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said oversight of the investigation belonged to the Senate.
‘The White House counsel has allowed the Senate to dictate what these terms look like and what the scope of the investigation is,’ she said. ‘The White House isn’t intervening. We’re not micromanaging this process. It’s a Senate process. It has been from the beginning, and we’re letting the Senate continue to dictate what the terms look like.’
White House aide Kellyanne Conway said the investigation will be ‘limited in scope’ and ‘will not be a fishing expedition’, adding: ‘The FBI is not tasked to do that.’ However, the precise scope of the investigation remained unclear.
Mr Trump told reporters that ‘the FBI, as you know, is all over talking to everybody’, and said ‘this could be a blessing in disguise’.
‘They have free rein,’ he added. ‘They’re going to do whatever they have to do, whatever it is they do. They’ll be doing things that we have never even thought of. And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine.’
The president revisited the question of ‘scope’ on Twitter, writing in part: ‘I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.’
The Senate Committee has said the probe should be limited to ‘current credible allegations’ against Mr Kavanaugh and be finished by Friday.
Ms Sanders said Mr Trump, who has vigorously defended Mr Kavanaugh but also raised the slight possibility of withdrawing the nomination should damaging information be found, ‘will listen to the facts’ of the FBI probe.
But she expressed confidence that no new information will be uncovered, noting the allegations did not surface during the judge’s six prior background checks for positions in the executive and judicial branches of government.
At least three women, including California professor Christine Blasey Ford, have accused Mr Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, of misconduct. He denies all the claims. The lawyer for Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were students at Yale, has agreed to cooperate with the FBI.
Ms Ramirez alleged Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in the early 1980s. A third woman, Julie Swetnick, accused Mr Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge of excessive drinking and inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations.
Mr Kavanaugh has called her accusations a ‘joke’ and Mr Judge said he ‘categorically’ denies the allegations. Ms Ford claims Mr Judge was in the room when a drunken Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Mr Judge said he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that will ‘confidentially investigate’ allegations against them. He has also denied misconduct.