Politics

Lawyers for accuser of Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh blast FBI for not interviewing her or judge

Key Points
  • The FBI does not plan to interview Christine Blasey Ford, the first of three women who last month publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
  • However, the FBI on Tuesday completed the second day of an interview with Kavanaugh's high school friend Mark Judge, whom Ford has said was in the room when the then-17-year-old Kavanaugh allegedly tried to rape her when she was 15.
  • President Donald Trump on Monday had said he believed the FBI was going to interview at least Ford and another Kavanaugh accuser, Deborah Ramirez.
Christine Blasey Ford testifies in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., September 27, 2018.
Saul Loeb | Pool | Reuters

Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford, the first of three women who last month publicly accused embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, blasted the FBI on Tuesday after reports it will not interview her — or Kavanugh — as part of a re-opened background check

The lawyers, Michael Bromwich and Debra Katz, in a letter to the FBI, said that since Friday they have offered the bureau's agents a sit-down with Ford, identified witnesses and evidence and asked for the identity of the agent in charge of the probe.

"Despite these efforts, we have received no response from anyone involved in this investigation, and no response to our offer for Dr. Ford to be interviewed," the lawyers wrote. "This afternoon, we learned of media reports that the FBI does not intend to interview either Dr. Ford or Judge Kavanaugh."

"We hope this reporting is inaccurate. It is inconceivable that the FBI could conduct a thorough investigation of Dr. Ford's allegations without interviewing her, Judge Kavanaugh, or the witnesses we have identified in our letters to you," the letter said.

A source told NBC News that the White House, which has set the parameters for a reopened background check into Kavanaugh, felt that Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday made an interview with the FBI unnecessary.

Also Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal, citing Republican aides on Capitol Hill,, said the FBI's probe of alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanugh could end late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The White House has told the FBI to finish by Friday.

FBI agents on Tuesday completed the second day of an interview with Kavanaugh's high school friend Mark Judge. Ford has said Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh, then 17 years old, allegedly tried to rape Ford, who was 15 years old.

Judge previously has said he has no memory of such an incident. Kavanaugh has strongly denied Ford's claims as well as those by two other women.

President Donald Trump on Monday had said: "I imagine they're going to interview two women," Ford and another Kavanaugh accuser, Deborah Ramirez. And Trump added, "It wouldn't bother me at all" if they also interviewed a third accuser, Julie Swetnick.

Later Monday, the White House authorized the FBI to expand its probe "by interviewing anyone it deems necessary as long as the review is finished by the end of the week."

The FBI interviewed Ramirez on Sunday, two days after the White House ordered the FBI to reopen its background check of Kavanaugh. Ramirez says that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken party at Yale College.

Before the White House instructed the FBI to expand its probe, the agency had been told by the White House to interview just four witnesses, one of whom was Ramirez.

The others were Judge, Leland Keyser and Patrick Smyth, three other people Ford had said were at a small gathering in a private house in suburban Maryland in the early 1980s at which she said Kavanaugh attacked her.

Smyth's lawyer, Eric Bruce, said in a prepared statement Monday: "Smyth has fully cooperated with the FBI investigation in this matter."

"He truthfully answered every question the FBI asked him and, consistent with the information he previously provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he indicated that he has no knowledge of the small party or gathering described by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford nor does he have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh," Bruce said.

Keyser spoke with the FBI on Saturday, according to her lawyer, Howard Walsh.

Walsh previously told investigators for Republicans on the Judiciary Committee that Keyser "has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford."

The third accuser, Swetnick, told NBC News in an interview aired Monday that Kavanaugh, at parties in the early 1980s, "was very aggressive — very sloppy drunk, very mean drunk. I saw him — go up to girls and paw on them ... get a little too handsy, touching them in private parts."

Swetnick's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has said he has offered the FBI the opportunity to interview her but received no response.

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Kavanaugh has likened Swetnick's accusation to "The Twilight Zone."

— CNBC's Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.