Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford slammed Brett Kavanaugh, branding it a “stain on the process, on the FBI and on our American ideal of justice.”
Ford’s three lawyers, Debra Katz, Lisa Banks, and Michael Bromwich, made the denunciation in a letter sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, hours after the FBI notified the White House it had completed its probe into Kavanaugh.
The FBI’s investigation was sent to the Senate early Thursday morning, and senators have been reviewing the report. Ford had accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party in the summer of 1982, when she was 15 and the future judge was 17.
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Ford’s lawyers signaled their dissatisfaction with the supplemental background investigation from the FBI, which the White House directed the bureau to conduct last week at the request of wavering senators led by Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
In their letter to Wray, Ford’s legal team lamented that the FBI failed to interview Ford and eight others in connection with the alleged sexual assault.
Among those whose names were provided to the FBI by Ford's legal team were the polygraph examiner who conducted her polygraph in August, Ford’s husband Russell, and five others Ford she told of the alleged sexual assault within the last five years.
Ford’s lawyers also asked the FBI to interview Monica McLean, a longtime friend of the California professor, who refuted a claim that Ford helped her prepare for a possible polygraph examination in the 1990s.
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The eight were not contacted by the FBI but “remain available to talk with law enforcement,” the lawyers wrote.
“[H]ad the FBI interviewed Dr. Ford, she would have provided her direct account of Judge Kavanaugh’s assault and answered any questions about it, including questions that Ms. [Rachel] Mitchell and the Judiciary Committee members were unwilling or unable to ask during the hearing,” they wrote.
Rachel Mitchell was the prosecutor hired by Senate Republicans to question Ford and Kavanaugh during last week’s hearing.
Had an interview with Ford occurred, they continued, she would have turned over her medical and therapy records and access to the phone she used to message the Washington Post about the allegations involving Kavanaugh.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, requested Ford turn over that information to the committee, but Ford’s lawyers said Wednesday she would only hand over the records to the FBI if she were interviewed.
“Such an interview would have played a crucial role in providing the FBI with a full picture of all of the facts involved in this important and serious matter,” Ford’s lawyers told Wray.
Ford claimed Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her during a small party at a house in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. in the summer of 1982. Three others Ford said attended the party, though, said they had no recollection of the event.
She and Kavanaugh testified about the allegation during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, though Kavanaugh vehemently denied the assault ever occurred.
The FBI was given a Friday deadline to complete its investigation into Kavanaugh following the allegation.
Numerous Republican senators who viewed the bureau’s report said it did not reveal any new information and offered no corroborating evidence of Ford’s claim.
Senate Democrats, though, said the probe was incomplete, as key individuals, such as Ford, were not interviewed. The investigation left more questions than answers, they said.