Dianne Feinstein Asks WH Counsel & FBI Director To Release FBI Directive Defining Scope Of Investigation
California Senator Dianne Feinstein sent a letter Sunday to White House counsel Don McGahn and FBI Director Christopher Wray in which she requests the release of the FBI directive President Trump issued Friday. The New York Post reported that she also asked for copies of any FBI requests for expansion of the original directive.
“Given the seriousness of the allegations before the Senate, I am writing to request that you provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with a copy of the written directive sent by the White House to the FBI. In addition, if the FBI requests any expansion beyond the initial directive, please provide the names of any additional witnesses or evidence.”
Senator Feinstein is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Senator Chuck Grassley. In a dramatic development Friday, Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona voted to advance the vote for confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate floor on the condition that President Trump be asked to request an additional FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh that would last not more than a week. President Trump made that request Friday, but over the weekend, questions about the scope of the investigation and the amount of control the White House is exerting over the scope have arisen.
On Twitter late Saturday, @SenFeinstein said the "FBI's hands must not be tied" in the investigation into sexual misconduct allegations leveled against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. https://t.co/iXejffEtpF pic.twitter.com/z5e9kb2OO5
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 30, 2018
The request for an additional FBI investigation came the day after both Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh made emotional testimonies before the Senate Judicial Committee. Ford is one of three women to publicly disclose details of sexual assaults they say they suffered at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh.
The Hill reported on Sunday that another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has already been interviewed by the bureau. In an interview that was published last Sunday, Ramirez alleged that a drunken Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a party they both attended at a Yale dormitory in the 1980s.
The third woman to go public with charges of sexual assault is Julie Swetnick. She has charged that her assault also took place during a party, this one while the two were in high school. Swetnick has stated that Kavanaugh drugged her with “Quaaludes or something similar” before several men attacked her in a gang rape.
NBC News reported that a witness list associated with the FBI directive does not include Swetnick’s name, causing concern by some that she will not be interviewed as part of the investigation and increasing concerns about the scope of the investigation that led to Senator Feinstein’s letter to White House counsel and the FBI director Sunday.
