President Trump has asserted that the FBI will have “free rein” over their investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was accused on several occasions of sexual misconduct and after enduring an emotional eight-hour hearing on Thursday, Senate Democrats demanded an FBI investigation be conducted.
The President heard these calls and requested a one-week investigation by the FBI into the allegations. Despite this, President Trump received heavy backlash, many saying that he was interfering and limiting the scope of the probe.
President Trump has denied these accusations telling reporters, “The FBI as you know is all over, talking to everybody. They have been all over it already. They have free rein to do whatever they have to do.”
The investigation is set to be completed by Friday, and CBN reports that the investigation will concentrate on four witnesses in the Kavanaugh investigation, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Julie Swetnick and Deborah Ramirez – the three women who made allegations against Kavanaugh – and the judge’s high school friend, Mark Judge.
Reportedly, investigators will not be speaking with Kavanaugh’s former classmates who have disputed his testimony about his time in high school.
CBN News reports that Deborah Ramirez, who accused Judge Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her during their time at Yale, has already spoken with the FBI. Over the weekend Ramirez reportedly spent two hours with investigators and provided them with a list of names of people who she believes might corroborate her story.
“Ms. Ramirez will be interviewed by the FBI. And Mark Judge will be asked, ‘Did you ever witness Brett Kavanaugh drug or gang-rape women.’ And I think that will be the scope of it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said to ABC News.
FBI sources told CBN News that the are very familiar with the practice of conducting investigations under tight deadlines and appear to be well equipped to conduct a thorough investigation over the course of this week.
FBI investigations of these sorts can only be requested by the White House and as such, results are only provided to the President’s administration. The FBI will not provide findings to anyone outside of the White House and they expect that the result will weigh heavily on interviews.
If new allegations or evidence come to light during the investigation, the President is permitted to order investigators to examine the evidence further.
President Trump insists he wants the investigation to be thorough and believes that it will actually be a “blessing in disguise” for Judge Kavanaugh. Trump said, “I want it to be comprehensive.”
He added, “I think that’s a good thing for Brett Kavanaugh. With that being said I’d like it to go quickly.”
Many, however, are continuing to question the scope of the probe, among them Hawaii’s Democratic senator Maisie Hirono. “The credibility of Judge Kavanaugh – that’s what’s before us right now,” she said asserting that the investigation must be comprehensive and without interference.
At this time President Trump has said that he is confident that he will not need to select a new nominee for the Supreme Court.
Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Win McNamee/Staff
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