Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is accusing Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of not being forthright in his answers during Senate testimony about grand jury secrets he handled while working for independent counsel Kenneth Starr two decades ago during the investigation of former President Bill Clinton.
Kavanaugh is now facing a wave of sexual assault allegations and during his initial confirmation hearing was accused of misleading senators about his work for the George W. Bush administration. Adding to that pile, Feinstein told Politico that she has found another instance in which the Supreme Court nominee has not been completely truthful.
“According to a memo from the National Archives, Brett Kavanaugh instructed Hickman Ewing, a colleague and deputy counsel in the Starr investigation, to ‘call [Chris] Ruddy’ about matters before a grand jury, which would be illegal to disclose,” Feinstein told the outlet in a statement. “I asked Judge Kavanaugh in questions for the record whether he had shared ‘information learned through grand jury proceedings.’ His answer, which says that he acted ‘consistent with the law,’ conflicts with the official memo from Mr. Ewing. Disclosing grand jury information is against the law and would be troubling for any lawyer, especially one applying for a promotion to the highest court in the country.”
During the Kenneth Starr investigation, Patrick Knowlton, a man who claimed he had seen someone in Fort Marcy Park not long before the body of Clinton White House lawyer Vince Foster was found in an apparent suicide in 1993, said that Kavanaugh asked him sexually explicit questions during the re-investigation of Foster’s death in 1995.
“Did the man in the park touch your genitals?” Knowlton remembered Kavanaugh asking. Knowlton told this information to investigative reporter, Christopher Ruddy of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Ruddy, a few weeks after the grand jury appearance, called Kavanaugh and left a voicemail saying he was “worried” about what he was about to report, according to records at the National Archives.
Kavanaugh said in a message to deputy independent counsel Hickman Ewing that he did not ask that question, and he asked Ewing to call Ruddy to “get him off the genitalia part.” Ewing stated in a memo that he contacted Ruddy but told him that they could not comment on any questions asked or answered during the grand jury hearing. However, Ewing went on to indicate to Ruddy on “off the record – deep background” that the genitals question was never asked.
Feinstein argues that by asking Ewing to get Ruddy off the genitals question Kavanaugh violated grand jury secrecy laws.
The White House did not immediately comment to Politico’s request for comment.
