White House promises no role in FBI probe

President Donald Trump is not seeking to ‘‘micromanage’’ the FBI’s investigation of sexualmisconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the White House press secretary said yesterday.

Democrats raised concerns that important lines of inquiry were off limits to investigators.

The scope of the reopened background check, already limited to one week, has become the latest flashpoint in the highly fraught political contest between supporters and opponents of confirming Kavanaugh, a 53-yearold federal appellate judge, to a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court.

While the president had to authorise the FBI to act on Saturday, and did so only under pressure from several wavering Republican senators, the White House made a point of saying that the Senate – whose Republican leadership has shown near-total fealty to Trump – is responsible for oversight.

‘‘The White House isn’t intervening,’’ press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on ‘‘Fox News Sunday.’’ ‘‘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 counselor Kellyanne Conway, on CNN’s State of the Union, said the reopened investigation was ‘‘not meant to be a fishing expedition.’’ But Conway, avoided a flat denial that White House counsel Donald McGahn had sought to put any particular interviews out of bounds.

‘‘I don’t think Don McGahn would do that, but I’ve not talked with him about it,’’ she said.

McGahn, a friend of Kavanaugh’s, has shepherded him through the Senate confirmation process for the White House and has been co-ordinating with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Kavanaugh’s nomination, seemingly on track for Senate endorsement, was thrown into doubt two weeks ago after Christine Blasey Ford, a Northern California research psychologist, went public with her allegation that he had sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. In July she initially told two Democratic California lawmakers — Rep. Anna Eshoo and Sen. Dianne Feinstein – on the condition that she not be publicly identified. Two other women subsequently came forward with accusations of their own.

After Ford and Kavanaugh testified on Friday before the Senate Judiciary Committee – with Ford providing an emotional but composed account of the alleged assault and Kavanaugh responding with a furious denial and attacks on Feinstein and other committee Democrats – the White House and Senate Republican leaders reluctantly agreed to a limited re-examination given the uncertainty of the confirmation vote.

As news media reported on Sunday that agents were being told to refrain from pursuing certain leads and potential witnesses, Trump said the FBI has ‘‘free rein’’ to investigate as it sees fit. The White House has said the investigation should encompass ‘‘current credible allegations’’ and be completed by the end of the week.

The seeming ambiguity about the investigation’s ground rules puts new pressure on Senator Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republican and key swing vote on the Judiciary Committee whose lastminute insistence led to the FBI inquiry.

He was supported by moderate Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who are not members of the Judiciary Committee. Both are undecided on Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and their support is considered essential given Republicans’ narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat whose questioning of Kavanaugh led to one of the most striking and tense exchanges of Friday’s hearing, said his response left unanswered whether his memory of events had ever been impaired by heavy drinking.

During the hearing, Klobuchar, who had just related her father’s struggles with alcoholism, asked Kavanaugh whether he had ever had a ‘‘blackout’’ from drinking too much, and he twice answered with a combative ‘‘Have you?’’ Later, he apologised.

Klobuchar and other Democrats said her question was relevant because Ford – like the other two accusers – had described him as being highly inebriated at the time of the alleged assault, which might have left him unable to recall accurately whether it took place. ‘‘I was actually trying to get at the truth, and that’s why I was stunned by how he answered,’’ Klobuchar senator said on CNN.

‘‘I think it’s really important that the FBI get to the bottom of the evidence here,’’ Klobuchar said in a separate interview on CBS.

The New York Times reported that former classmates who have talked about Kavanaugh’s heavy drinking were left off the list of those the FBI planned to interview.

‘‘The White House isn’t intervening.’’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders, press secretary