The attorney for the Boulder woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct went on the offensive Tuesday – demanding an FBI investigation and fighting to get her before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
By evening, John Clune was hitting national television shows, expressing dismay that no investigation had been opened and accusing Republicans on the Senate committee of vowing to discuss how the process might work but failing to get on the phone when they said they would.
“The minority party was there,” Clune told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “The majority party did not show.”
In other words, only the Democrats – who don’t have the votes to block a favorable recommendation for Kavanaugh – made themselves available to discuss the possibility of taking testimony from Deborah Ramirez, the Boulder woman who has alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a drunken dormitory party when they were classmates at Yale.
Ramirez came forward after being contacted by a reporter, her attorneys confirmed Tuesday to 9Wants to Know.
That followed allegations from a California college professor that Kavanaugh held her down, tried to remove her clothes and clamped his hand over her mouth when she screamed at a house party in the early 1980s. They were both high school students at the time.
Kavanaugh has denied all of the allegations.
Clune began Tuesday by issuing a series of statements on his Twitter page, calling for an FBI investigation where witnesses would be under oath and face the threat of perjury if they lied. He also suggested that he was working with the Senate Judiciary Committee to determine the appropriate way to proceed.
By the end of the day, he expressed frustration, accusing the Republicans of backing out of commitments to discuss the issue.
In late-afternoon Twitter postings, Clune wrote: “We have officially requested an FBI investigation and our client remains adamant that is the appropriate venue for her to discuss her trauma … Ms. Ramirez is ready to swear to the FBI under penalty of perjury. Why won’t the Senate Judiciary Committee welcome that?”
“The first thing that’s critical is that this has to be investigated by trained law enforcement,” Clune told CNN’s Cooper. “This has to be done by the FBI, who can investigate the matter with a threat of perjury.”
Later, he echoed those comments to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow – accusing Republicans of not really being interested in hearing Ramirez’s allegations.
“It's disturbing,” Clune told Maddow. “They, they – you know, they keep on changing the rules of how they want to go forward. And every time that we talk about – wanna talk about how that's going forward and just discuss it on the phone, then they push it back.
“So, I mean it's hard to see that they're really interested in getting the information that Ms. Ramirez has.”
In a letter sent to FBI Special Agent Calvin Shivers, Clune formally requested an FBI probe as "part of the background investigation" ahead of Kavanaugh's nomination.
All of it may be for naught – late Tuesday, Senate Republicans announced that the Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court on Friday. That vote by the 21-member committee has one of three possible outcomes – a favorable recommendation, an unfavorable recommendation, and no recommendation.
No matter how the committee votes, the full Senate will vote on Kavanaugh’s appointment. Republicans hold a 51-47 edge; two independents who caucus with the Democrats.
Contact 9NEWS reporter Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
