By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
Whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh makes it to the nation’s highest court may come down to a one-week FBI investigation.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called for an FBI investigation on Friday following an intense and emotional nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I think that we ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important,” Flake said just hours after he said he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
So what would a week-long FBI investigation entail?
The Republican-led committee called for the probe to be “limited to current credible allegations against the nominee.”
Three women have come forward to claim Kavanaugh sexually assaulted them.
But one of those women’s accusations aren’t being treated seriously, said Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Julie Swetnick, who said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her and that she was gang-raped at a party decades ago.
“This investigation is only as good as the scope,” Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Swetnick, told USA TODAY. “If the scope doesn’t include my client and the others who have accused Mr. Kavanaugh, how can it be a credible investigation?”
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted that the “FBI’s hands must not be tied in this investigation.”
“We need the facts,” she wrote.
But on Friday, President Trump said the investigation “must be limited in scope.”
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said the FBI must determine what “limited scope” means but indicated the probe cannot “be a fishing expedition.”
Following a rally in West Virginia on Saturday, Trump said the FBI has “free rein.”
“Whatever it is they do, they’ll be doing things that we’ve never even thought of,” the president said.
The FBI declined to comment.
Most likely, FBI agents will try to determine the veracity of the claims by Christine Blasey Ford, who said Kavanaugh pulled her into a room, held her down, fondled her and cupped his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. That means interviewing everyone who attended the party, including Mark Judge, whom Ford said stood watch outside the locked room while Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.
According to the USA Today, the FBI has contacted Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, who said he exposed himself during a drunken party.
The FBI has the resources to handle special investigations, former bureau officials said.
“They could knock this thing out in a couple of days,” said Jim Davis, a former agent who participated in at least 50 such background inquiries.
The investigation’s findings will be turned over to the White House, which then must share them with the Senate committee.
A full Senate vote could happen later this week or next week.
With a 51-seat majority, all but one Republican must approve the nomination if every Democrat opposes it, as long as Vice President Mike Pence casts the tie-breaking vote in Kavanaugh’s favor.
