Attorney for second Kavanaugh accuser: This has to be investigated by the FBI

An attorney for Deborah Ramirez, the second woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, said Tuesday night that he would not recommend she testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee without an FBI investigation, and he also accused Republican staffers on the committee of stonewalling his requests. “This is not something that can be done via the Senate or some hired-gun prosecutor that wants to cross-examine either Ms. Ford or Ms. Ramirez,” John Clune, the lawyer for Ramirez, told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. “This has to be by the FBI, who can investigate the matter with the threat of perjury.” Clune was referring to Christine Blasey Ford, who will testify before the Senate panel on Thursday about her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s. Ramirez came forward Sunday night with accusations that Kavanaugh assaulted her during their time at Yale, saying that he exposed himself to her and that she was forced to touch his penis. Ramirez’s allegation, which Kavanaugh denies, came to light in a New Yorker report that further stated she has significant gaps in her memory and that it took her six days to feel confident enough in identifying Kavanaugh as the individual who exposed himself. James Roche, Kavanaugh’s roommate at the time the episode is alleged to have occurred, told The New Yorker that Ramirez’s allegations were “believable” but that he had no firsthand knowledge of what happened. President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have repeatedly said the FBI is done with its background check of Kavanaugh and that it is not in the bureau’s purview to investigate any of the allegations. POLITICO previously reported that former FBI officials said the bureau had looked into similar claims before, but that the White House would probably need to order it to do so in this case. Clune said he was not representing Ramirez when The New York Times reported that she was calling former classmates about the alleged incident and saying she wasn’t sure whether Kavanaugh was the individual in question. The Times looked into her allegations but ultimately decided not to publish them. Ramirez’s account followed Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh assaulted her during a party while the two were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied Ford’s allegation, and he will testify to the Judiciary Committee on Thursday after her. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the committee, previously asked Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to delay the hearing so that Ramirez’s claims could be investigated. But in a letter to Feinstein, Grassley said the hearing would go on as scheduled. He has also scheduled a committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination for Friday morning, less than 24 hours after the hearing. Clune accused Republican staffers of “playing games” during their negotiations with him about whether and how Ramirez might come forward. He said that only Democratic staffers participated in a call on Tuesday evening to further discuss the situation. “It feels like there’s a lot of game playing that’s going on right now by the majority party, and we just want to be able to talk to them and find out what is it they’re contemplating about how this will be investigated or how Debbie could provide her information to the Senate,” Clune said. “Blaming us for being uncooperative is just not consistent with how things have gone or what the emails show.” A committee aide for the majority did not directly respond to whether or not a Republican staffer was on the call, but said Grassley had tried seven times in the previous 48 hours to follow up with Clune on two questions — chiefly whether she has any other evidence beyond what was in The New Yorker’s report, and whether she would be “willing to provide her evidence, including her testimony, to committee investigators.” source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/25/deborah-ramirez-attorney-kavanagh-fbi-841973 #Headlines by: bgriffiths@politico.com (Brent D. Griffiths)

Original Post: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/25/deborah-ramirez-attorney-kavanagh-fbi-841973