New details show how FBI limited Kavanaugh probe
WASHINGTON — As Justice Brett Kavanaugh prepares for his second year on the Supreme Court, new reporting has detailed how the limits ordered by the White House and Senate Republicans last year constrained the FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a college freshman.
The FBI was informed of allegations that Kavanaugh, while drunk during his freshman year at Yale, exposed himself to two heavily intoxicated female classmates on separate occasions. The bureau did not interview more than a dozen people who said they could provide information about the incidents.
One of the accounts, reported by Deborah Ramirez, was made public at the time of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
The other, not publicly known until this weekend, was reported by a male classmate who said he witnessed the incident. He unsuccessfully sought to get the FBI to investigate with help from a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to look into the allegation.
The new details are based on interviews conducted by this reporter and two reporters for The New York Times for books about the confirmation. The New York Times reported some details late Saturday from its reporters’ new book. (The Times has also apologized for an offensive tweet sent to promote the article. The tweet said, in part, that “having a penis thrust in your face at a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun.” )
Wray has declined requests by this reporter to be interviewed about the bureau’s performance. Kavanaugh also declined to be interviewed.
The bestknown allegation against Kavanaugh was the accusation by Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor from Palo Alto, that he assaulted her when they were high school students. Kavanaugh heatedly denied her allegation when he and Ford testified before the Judiciary Committee in a televised hearing.
The committee’s GOP majority declined to give a public hearing to Ramirez, and it is unclear how many senators knew of the allegation of a second, similar incident at Yale. The committee’s chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley, RIowa, and its senior Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, were both informed of the allegation.
Ramirez alleged that Kavanaugh exposed his penis and caused her to touch it while they were inebriated during a drinking game in a dormitory suite in late 1983 or early 1984. Kavanaugh denied her allegation.
The other allegation, previously unreported, came from Washington lawyer Max Stier, who told Sen. Chris Coons, DDel., that he witnessed Kavanaugh exposing himself to a different female classmate during their freshman year.
The FBI never contacted Stier.