The attorney for the second woman to accuse US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct on Saturday said that FBI agents assigned to investigate the allegations contacted her.
The announcement by Deborah Ramirez’s lawyer John Clune indicates that the FBI probe of Kavanaugh, ordered on Friday by US President Donald Trump, will look beyond separate allegations of attempted rape leveled against the federal appeals court judge by Christine Blasey Ford at a hearing at the US Senate last week.
“We can confirm the FBI has reached out to interview Ms Ramirez and she has agreed to cooperate with their investigation,” Clune said in a tweet. “Out of respect for the integrity of the process, we will have no further comment at this time.”
Ramirez alleges that Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her during a drunken party at Yale University when they were undergraduates.
Kavanaugh denies both Ford’s and Ramirez’s allegations.
Trump on Saturday again backed Kavanaugh, calling him “a good man” and “a great judge.”
Asked if he had a backup candidate, Trump said: “I don’t have a backup plan. I don’t need a backup. I think he’s going to be fine.”
Michael Avenatti, the attorney for a third Kavanaugh accuser, Julie Swetnick, said in an e-mail to reporters that his client had not been contacted by investigators.
Ford, a California university professor, detailed for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary her claims that Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a party in 1982 when the two were high-school teenagers.
The allegations against Kavanaugh, with the backdrop of the #MeToo movement that has toppled a succession of powerful men, have riveted the US, even as they raised doubts about his confirmation chances.
Trump ordered the FBI investigation after US Senator Jeff Flake threatened to vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation unless Republicans, who control the Senate, agreed to the new probe.
Flake was supported by two other Republicans, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, both of whom have not announced whether they would support Kavanaugh.
Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, making the votes of Murkowski and Collins crucial.
Trump can afford to lose the vote of only one senator in his own party if all the Democrats vote against Kavanaugh and US Vice President Mike Pence casts a tie-breaking vote.
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