WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he wants the FBI to do a “comprehensive” investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh. But he also said he stands by his Supreme Court nominee “all the way.”
Trump said during a Rose Garden press conference that he wants the probe to wrap up quickly because the accusations have been “so unfair” to Kavanaugh and his family.
But he said it’s fine with him if the FBI wants to pursue accusations made by three women who have publicly come forward even as he has left the scope of the investigation to Senate Republicans.”My White House will do whatever the senators want,” Trump said. “The one thing I want is speed.”
The president added, “We don’t want to go on a witch hunt, do we?”
Trump also said he was surprised Kavanaugh has been so open about his beer drinking, one area Democrats are planning to focus on as they question whether the nominee was fully truthful in his testimony before the Senate.

McConnell Says Vote Will Be This Week

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., mocked the questions about Kavanaugh’s drinking in high school and college and accused Democrats of “moving the goalpost” in a bid to stop the nomination. He pledged that the Senate will be voting on Kavanaugh this week.
“The time for endless delay and obstruction has come to a close,” he said.
The White House insisted it was not “micromanaging” the review of Kavanaugh’s background, but some Democratic lawmakers claimed the White House was keeping investigators from interviewing certain witnesses. Trump tweeted that no matter how much time and discretion the FBI was given, “it will never be enough” for Democrats trying to keep Kavanaugh off the bench.
The Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, stressed the importance of conducting a “serious, impartial and thorough” FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. He praised Trump for saying there will be no limits on the investigation, but said the order to the FBI needs to be made public “so the whole country” can see it.
FBI agents have interviewed one of the three women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Senators have asked that the background investigation be completed by Friday.
Even as the FBI explored the past allegations that have surfaced against Kavanaugh, another Yale University classmate came forward to accuse the federal appellate judge of being untruthful in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the extent of his drinking in college.
As the fresh review unfolded, the prosecutor who was brought in by Republicans to handle questioning at last week’s hearing outlined in a new memo why she did not believe criminal charges would be brought against Kavanaugh if it were a criminal case rather than a Supreme Court confirmation process. Rachel Mitchell wrote that she did not believe a “reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee.”
Mitchell argued that there were inconsistencies in accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s narrative and said no one has corroborated Ford’s account. Ford, a California college professor, was not questioned as part of a criminal proceeding but in the confirmation process.

Ford Say No Contact With FBI

Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, has not been contacted by the FBI since Trump on Friday ordered the agency to take another look at the nominee’s background, according to a member of Ford’s team.
Kavanaugh has denied assaulting Ford.
In a statement released Sunday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s said he is “deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale.” Charles “Chad” Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was a friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale and that Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker.”
“On many occasions, I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive,” Ludington said. While saying that youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh’s statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Speaking to the issue of the scope of the FBI’s investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said White House counsel Don McGahn, who is managing Kavanaugh’s nomination, “has allowed the Senate to dictate what these terms look like, and what the scope of the investigation is.”
Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., requested an investigation last Friday — after he and other Republicans on the panel voted along strict party lines in favor of Kavanaugh’s confirmation — as a condition for his own subsequent vote to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.

Graham Wants Friend Interviewed

Another committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that testimony would be taken from Kavanaugh’s high school friend Mark Judge, who has been named by two of three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
“I think that will be the scope of it. And that should be the scope of it,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Republicans have 51 seats in the closely divided 100-member Senate and cannot afford to lose more than one vote on confirmation.
At least three women have accused Kavanaugh of years-ago misconduct. He denies all the claims.