Book Reveals New Claims Against Brett Kavanaugh, FBI Investigation Lead

It will be exactly one year on Monday that Christine Blasey Ford announced sexual assault charges against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who eventually led to an FBI investigation into an allegation. sexual misconduct while Kavanaugh was a student.

In their new book, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, of the New York Times, raise a new controversy, alleging that investigators did not interview more than two dozen people "who might have corroborating evidence" about the story of the second accuser of Kavanaugh and, potentially, have another alleged victim entirely.

In a report, adapted from a forthcoming book titled "Brett Kavanaugh's Education: An Inquiry," the New York Times focuses on Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh at Yale University. His charges against him were detailed for the first time in The New Yorker, less than a week after the publication of Blasey Ford's story. Ramirez told the New Yorker that on a night out in a dormitory during the 1983-1984 academic year, Kavanaugh "had dug his penis in his face," forcing her "to touch him without her consent. ".

Kavanaugh categorically denied Ramirez's accusations.

"This alleged 35-year-old event did not happen," he said in a statement shortly after the report was released. "The people who knew me then know that it did not happen and said it's a smear, clear and simple."

Kavanaugh again denied these accusations, as well as those of Blasey Ford and another accuser, Julie Swetnick, during his public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Through a spokesman for the court, Kavanaugh declined to comment on ABC News's allegations made in The Times newspaper published Sunday and the new book this week.

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At the request of committee members, President Donald Trump has eased the FBI's background check procedure with Kavanaugh, sources close to the ABC News process said last October. Trump had previously called for a "limited scope," but sources told ABC News that he was later allowing the FBI to interrogate anyone as he pleases, focusing on charges laid separately. by Ford and Ramirez.

In early October, the FBI submitted its report to the Senate Judiciary Committee. After reviewing the report, the chair of the committee, Senator Chuck Grassley, described the charges as "unsubstantiated" and said "neither the Judicial Committee nor the FBI could locate third parties who can attest to these allegations".

Kavanaugh was finally confirmed in the Supreme Court by 50 votes to 48.

The book's authors now claim that the FBI's investigation was not thorough enough, claiming that Ramirez's legal team had handed over to the FBI a list of at least 25 people who could have confirm his allegations, but that none of them had been interviewed in his interviews. the bureau's additional investigation, even after some of them tried to contract the FBI on their own. The Times also reports that two FBI agents interviewed Ramirez and declared that he found "credible", but that the Senate "imposed strict limits on the investigation".

A spokesman for Ramirez declined to comment on ABC News.

The book also includes another Yale student's account of a separate incident in Kavanaugh's first year, in which he said he saw Kavanagh "lowering his pants to another night in a drunken dorm, where friends had pushed his penis in the hand of a student ". However, the authors allege that even though this comrade has warned the senators and the FBI, he has not investigated his complaint. The book indicates that the alleged victim refused to discuss the incident and several friends said that she did not remember it, although the Times report does not include this detail .

These new allegations against Kavanaugh incite both the dismissal of Kavanaugh and the renewed support of his allies. Trump, who defended his candidate on Twitter, wrote: "He is an innocent man who has been treated with horror, such lies around him, they want to scare him into being liberal!"

Many Democratic presidential candidates quickly demanded Kavanaugh's dismissal. Meaning. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro both called for Kavanaugh's removal by tweets. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders both criticized the new reports, but they did not specifically call for dismissal.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Commented on last year's Kavanaugh investigations into "This Week," telling ABC News Channel chief George Stephanopoulos, "My concern is that the process was a sham. "

ABC News contacted the Senate Judiciary Committee for comments, but received no response.

Kaitlyn Folmer (ABC News), Martha Raddatz, Trish Turner and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.