Democrats denounce limits on FBI probe
WASHINGTON — Democrats reacted with anger Sunday as it became clear the White House and Senate Republicans had imposed a narrow scope on the new FBI investigation into Judge Brett Kavanaugh, warning the inquiry threatened to become a sham.
Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” that any investigation that limits whom the FBI can interview and which leads agents can follow would be a “farce.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is also on the committee, described what she said was micromanaging from the White House: “You can’t interview this person, you can’t look at this time period, you can only look at these people from one side of the street from when they were growing up.”
“I mean, come on,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The White House agreed Friday to order the FBI to conduct a “limited” one-week supplemental background check of Kavanaugh after a small number of Republicans joined Democrats in demanding an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct.
White House officials have asked the FBI to interview four witnesses, a typical request in a background check. No evidence has emerged that the White House has forbidden any investigative steps, and President Donald Trump has said he wants agents “to interview
whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”
In a tweet Sunday, Trump accused Democrats of playing politics and said they would never be satisfied with any inquiry.
“Wow! Just starting to hear the Democrats, who are only thinking Obstruct and Delay, are starting to put out the word that the ‘time’ and ‘scope’ of FBI looking into Judge Kavanaugh and witnesses is not enough,” he wrote. “Hello! For them, it will never be enough.”
Democrats have cast the initial list of those to be interviewed as falling short of a full examination of the allegations. The four witnesses are Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth, high school friends of Kavanaugh; Leland Keyser, a high school friend of one of Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford; and Deborah Ramirez, another of the judge’s accusers.
A lawyer for Blasey, who riveted the nation Thursday as she recounted before the Judiciary Committee what she said was a rape attempt by a drunken Kavanaugh when they were in high school, said Sunday she had not been contacted by the FBI.
“We have not heard from the FBI despite repeated efforts to speak with them,” Debra S. Katz, the lawyer, said in a brief telephone interview Sunday morning.
Blasey testified last week that she was willing to cooperate with authorities. Kavanaugh has strenuously denied the accusations by Blasey and other accusers.
The inquiry set in motion last week is aimed at resolving the fierce national debate over Kavanaugh’s fitness to sit on the Supreme Court. But its abbreviated nature appears likely to disappoint his critics, who have insisted on a wide-ranging examination of his drinking and sexual habits as a high school and college student. Even Democratic senators who had acknowledged the background check would be limited said Sunday they were disappointed.
Officials said FBI agents were not making the kind of broad efforts journalists have engaged in over the past several weeks to talk to anyone who might have information about Kavanaugh’s sexual conduct or drinking habits as a young man.