FBI 'immediately moves to interview other Kavanaugh accuser' as probe starts of Trump's Supreme Court nominee

Agents have been given seven days to complete investigation

FBI agents have immediately reached out to other women who accused Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee of sexual abuse of misconduct, it has been reported.

Mr Trump ordered the FBI to carry out a supplemental investigation that was “limited in scope” in order to update Brett Kavanaugh’s file. Within hours of doing so, agents were reportedly contacting the lawyers for at least one of two other women to have accused the 53-year-old judge of misconduct. Investigators said they would like to interview her “as early as tonight”, according to the Los Angeles Times. Her lawyers instead agreed to an an alternative time, possibly over the weekend.

The New York Times said the woman contacted by the bureau’s agents was Deborah Ramirez, 53, from Boulder, Colorado, who said Mr Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her and forced his penis in front of her face during a drunken dormitory party at Yale University 35 years ago. Ms Ramirez’s lawyer, John Clune, this week told reporters she was wiling to testify about the alleged incident. Mr Clune did not respond to enquiries.

Meanwhile, Michael Avenatti, who represents a third accuser, Julie Smetnick, revealed he had been practically pleading with the Senate Judiciary Committee to hear from his client.

Ms Smetnick has said she was present at up to 10 parties in Maryland in the 1980s where Mr Kavanaugh and a friend, Mark Ford, drugged young women to prepare them for gang rapes. The two men have denied this claim.

In an email sent on Friday to Mike Davis, counsel to the senate committee, Mr Avenatti wrote: “In light of Senator Flake’s comments moments ago, please let us know when we can meet with the FBI and provide the facts and evidence supporting my client’s sworn declaration. Time is of the essence.”

On Saturday afternoon, NBC reported the White House had directed the FBI to limit its probe to the claims of Ms Ford and Ms Ramirez, and not to include the accusations of Ms Smetnick. Mr Avenatti said on Twitter: “If true, this is outrageous. Why are Trump and his cronies in the Senate trying to prevent the American people from learning the truth? Why do they insist on muzzling women with information submitted under penalty of perjury? Why Ramirez but not my client?”

A spokesperson for the FBI told The Independent it was referring all enquiries to the White House, which did not immediately respond.

The FBI was ordered to carry out an probe into Mr Kavanaugh after Jeff Flake, a Republican senator from Arizona and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stunned Capitol Hill – especially members of this own party – when he said he would only vote to approve Mr Kavanaugh on the understanding that a full vote in the senate to confirm the nominee, was delayed seven days to allow the FBI carry out enquiries, as has been demanded by Democratic members of the committee.

“This country is being ripped apart here,” Mr Flake told the committee, after a vote scheduled for 1.30pm was delayed. “We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important.”

Mr Flake’s intervention came after a day of dramatic testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who claims Mr Kavanaugh pushed her into a bedroom and forcibly tried to remove her clothes at a high school party in 1982. He has denied the claims.

The FBI did not immediately respond to enquiries on Saturday. However, reports suggest agents may wish to examine a 1982 calendar of Mr Kavanaugh’s that the committee had a chance to look at. A 1 July entry, while making no reference to Ms Ford, referred to “small get-togethers” with his friends.

“Go to Timmy’s for skis with Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie and Squi,” reads the entry by the then 17-year-old Mr Kavanaugh

The Washington Post said that “Timmy”, according to Mr Kavanaugh’s testimony, refers to his Georgetown Prep classmate Tim Gaudette.

The other two people named are Mark Judge and Patrick “PJ” Smyth, Mr Kavanaugh noted. “Squi” refers to his friend Chris Garrett.

Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse said on Friday that the calendar could be “powerful corroborating evidence” to Ms Ford’s testimony.

“This may – may – be powerful corroborating evidence that the assault happened,” he said. “That it happened that day. And that it happened in that place.”

Ms Ford has said that two of the people present the night she was assaulted are mentioned on the calendar and that at least four boys – one of whose name she could not remember and one other girl were present.

The girl, Ford’s friend Leland Keyser, was her classmate at the private girls school Holton-Arms.

Mr Judge and Mr Kavanaugh have stridently denied any allegation of misconduct. Lawyers for PJ Smyth, Mr Judge and Ms Ingham Keyser, said they were willing to cooperate “fully” with the FBI’s investigation.

Mr Kavanaugh has always vowed to work with the bureau. He said: “I’ve done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate.”

Experts said they believed it was possible for the FBI to carry out a background check in seven days.

“Based on what we publicly know as far as the universe of people, I don’t see any reason why the FBI could not complete an investigation within one week,” Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer and expert in security clearance and background investigations, told the Associated Press. “Remember, they’re not reaching a decision or recommendation. They are just compiling the investigation and reporting on it.”