Who was interrogated by the FBI on the Kavanaugh probe?
Who was interrogated by the FBI on the Kavanaugh probe?
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The FBI has closed its background investigation of the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but much of what he did remains a mystery, including his decisions about whom to interview.
The details of the investigation have not been publicly disclosed. Republicans say the investigation was comprehensive and reinforces its support for the president Donald Trumpnominated But Democrats condemn him as incomplete and limited, and Kavanaugh's accusers say the FBI did not interview witnesses who could have corroborated their accounts.
Republicans say nine people were interviewed. Six have been identified by The Associated Press and other media.
Among those who were not interviewed were Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the professor at the University of California who testified last week before Congress that a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high school students. Kavanaugh denies the accusations.
Here is a look at who was interrogated, and who was not:
TO WHOM HAS THE FBI INTERVIEWED?
White House spokesman Raj Shah said the FBI contacted 10 people and interviewed nine of them. Senator John Kennedy, R-La., Said that several witnesses were questioned about the allegations of Deborah Ramírez, who knew Kavanaugh when they were students at Yale University.
But the only witness identified publicly linked to Ramírez's accusation is Ramírez herself. She told the FBI that Kavanaugh was exposed to her at a party in the early 1980s, when they were students at Yale. His interview was on Sunday, according to a person close to Ramírez, who was not allowed to discuss the matter publicly, so he spoke on condition of anonymity.
The five remaining witnesses that have been publicly identified are associated with Ford's claim.
The FBI interrogated Mark Judge, a friend from Kavanaugh's high school. Ford says that Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early eighties. The judge said he did not remember the events described by Ford and that he never saw Kavanaugh act in the way she describes.
The agents also spoke with two people that Ford said they attended the party where she said she was attacked, although she says they did not witness the incident.
Ford's friend, Leland Keyser, was questioned on Saturday and said he did not know Kavanaugh and does not remember being at a party with him. Keyser believes Ford's account is "unable to corroborate it because he has no recollection of the incident in question," said his attorney, Howard Walsh.
Patrick "P.J." Smyth, who Ford said also attended the party, told investigators he "had no knowledge" of the meeting that Ford described or any allegation of Kavanaugh's misconduct, according to his lawyer, Eric Bruce.
The FBI also spoke with two of Kavanaugh's high school classmates, Chris Garrett, with whom Ford said he "left for a few months," and Timothy Gaudette, who appears on Kavanaugh's calendars as hosts on May 1. July 1982. gathering the one Kavanaugh attended.
WHO HAS NOT BEEN INTERVIEWED?
The first on the list are Ford and Kavanaugh. The FBI also has not interviewed several potential witnesses identified by Ford's lawyers as people who could corroborate that she provided details of the attack years ago, a counterpoint to claims that her allegations may be politically motivated.
Ramírez's attorneys provided the agents with a list of more than 20 witnesses, but until Wednesday night, the FBI had not interviewed any of the people Ramírez believed could corroborate his account, according to the person close to Ramírez.
Several of Kavanaugh's classmates at Yale also approached the FBI, but were never contacted. They include Charles "Chad" Ludington, who challenged Kavanaugh's testimony about his drinking and said that Kavanaugh was "a frequent drinker and a heavy drinker".
Another classmate, Kerry Berchem, said she has made several shipments to a tip line but has not received a return call or a substantial response from the FBI.
The FBI also did not contact Julie Swetnick, who alleged that she was the victim of a party attended by Kavanaugh and her friends. Swetnick accused Kavanaugh and the judge of excessive drinking and inadequate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Kavanaugh has called his accusations "joke." The judge "categorically" denies the accusations.
Nor was he asked: Judge's ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Rasor, who said Judge told him in 1988 that he and several Georgetown Prep classmates took turns having sex with a drunken woman. Rasor sent an affidavit to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but his lawyer says the FBI did not respond to his client's request to be interviewed. The judge's lawyers have said he denies his account.
WHY NO MORE PERSONS INTERVIEWED?
The answers are not clear. The White House and the FBI are not saying.
The Trump government said it authorized the FBI to interview witnesses it deemed relevant. But a retired assistant director of the FBI, Joseph Campbell, said the White House still sets the parameters for the people with whom it wants to be contacted.
"It's not like a typical type of investigation, where the FBI has ample freedom to look for facts and evidence and information as needed to develop a case or develop information for national security purposes, that sort of thing," Campbell said.
The absence of interviews from Kavanaugh and Ford has especially aroused attention.
Chris Quick, a retired FBI special agent with experience in background investigations, said the White House and the FBI may be reluctant to have them repeat things they had already sworn to the committee, especially given the time constraints of week.
"Part of that is that she already testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, both," Quick said. "So, what do I ask those who have not been asked yet?"
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