White House denies meddling
As Democrats insist FBI follow evidence in Kavanaugh probe, administration says it’s up to the Senate.
Trump is not seeking to “micromanage” Kavanaugh investigation, aide says.
WASHINGTON — President Trump is not seeking to “micromanage” the FBI’s new probe of sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a spokeswoman said Sunday, but Democrats raised concerns that key lines of inquiry were being placed off-limits to investigators.
The scope of the reopened background check, already limited to one week, has become the latest issue in the fraught contest between supporters and opponents of confirming Kavanaugh, a 53-year-old federal appellate judge, to a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court.
While the president had to authorize the FBI to act on Friday, and did so only under pressure from several wavering GOP senators, the White House says the Senate — whose Republican leadership has shown neartotal 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 .... and we’re letting the Senate continue to dictate what the terms look like.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the reopened probe was “not meant to be a fishing expedition.” But Conway, who said without detail that she, too, was a victim of a sexual assault, avoided a flat denial that White House counsel Donald McGahn sought to limit interviews.
McGahn, a friend of Kavanaugh’s, has shepherded him through the Senate confirmation process for the White House.
Kavanaugh’s nomination, which had seemed on track for confirmation, was thrown into doubt two weeks ago after Christine Blasey Ford, a California research psychologist, publicly alleged that he had sexually assaulted her when they were high school students. In July she told two Democratic California lawmakers — Rep. Anna G. Eshoo of Menlo Park and Sen. Dianne Feinstein — on the condition that she not be publicly identified. Two other women subsequently came forward with their own accusations.
After Ford and Kavanaugh testified Thursday 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 Democrats — the White House and Senate GOP leaders reluctantly agreed to a limited reexamination.
Amid reports Saturday that FBI agents were being told to refrain from pursuing certain leads and potential witnesses, Trump told reporters that the bureau 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 week’s end.
The seeming ambiguity about the inquiry’s scope puts new pressure on Sen. Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republican and key swing vote on the committee whose last-minute insistence led to the reopening of the probe.
He was supported by moderate GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who are not on the committee. Both are undecided on Kavanaugh, and their support is considered essential given Republicans’ narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat whose questioning of Kavanaugh led to a tense exchange at Thursday’s hearing, said he had left unanswered whether his memory of events had ever been impaired by heavy drinking.
At the hearing, Klobuchar related her father’s struggles with alcoholism and asked Kavanaugh whether he had ever blacked out from drinking too much, and he twice answered with a combative, “Have you?” Later, he apologized.
Klobuchar and other Democrats said her question was relevant because Ford, like the other two accusers, said Kavanaugh was highly inebriated at the time of the alleged assault, which might have left him unable to recall what took place.
“I was actually trying to get at the truth, and that’s why I was stunned by how he answered,” Klobuchar said on CNN.
The New York Times reported that former classmates who say Kavanaugh was a heavy drinker were left off the list of those the FBI planned to interview. The paper cited two people “familiar with the matter” as saying the FBI would question four potential witnesses concerning the attack Ford alleges, and seek White House permission if those interviews call for further checking.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been perhaps Kavanaugh’s biggest champion on the committee, suggested there was no reason for investigators to pursue the subject of the judge’s drinking habits through interviews with former classmates.
“He’s had six FBI background checks,” Graham said on ABC, referring to routine inquiries dating to the 1990s for Kavanaugh’s past appointments to lowerlevel federal offices. Kavanaugh was not “a stumbling, bumbling drunk,” Graham added.
Graham also said constraints on the inquiry’s scope were not the doing of the White House, but of the moderate GOP senators who called for the reopened background check. “I know that Sens. Flake, Collins and Murkowski wanted a limited review,” he said.
But Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called on the three undecided Republicans to use their leverage to ensure the probe would be sufficiently thorough.
“The question is, are we going to get the kind of investigation that is thorough and fair?” she said on ABC.
Trump supported Kavanaugh after Ford’s account of the alleged assault, and did so again at a campaign-style rally Saturday night in West Virginia.
“On Thursday, the American people saw the brilliant and really incredible character, quality and courage of our nominee for the United States Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” he told the crowd, which whooped in response.
Congressional Republicans have largely joined Trump in denouncing the confirmation process as tainted by partisanship, but most have avoided direct criticism of Ford or the other accusers, instead targeting committee Democrats.
Most also have called the reopened investigation unnecessary but say they are willing to see what it turns up. “If there’s some shocking new evidence and proof, I’m open to evaluating that evidence,” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
With the midterm election just over a month away — and Democrats feeling more confident about seizing control of the House — some lawmakers said Kavanaugh could face scrutiny, even impeachment, if he has by then ascended to the Supreme Court.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, who is in line to lead the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats win a majority, said on ABC that if this probe is lacking, the House would do its own inquiry into “things that haven’t been properly looked into,” including whether Kavanaugh had perjured himself in his testimony, as critics and legal observers have suggested.