The attorney representing Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, says his client is willing to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but only after the FBI investigates the alleged incident.
But he said that because the committee has refused that option, they are unable to agree on Ramirez’s testimony.
“She would be willing to testify, but we can’t even talk with the Senate Judiciary Committee about what that would look like, and they certainly haven’t invited her,” John Clune told “Today” Wednesday morning about his client, Deborah Ramirez. “So, at this point, it’s a moot question.”
Watch @savannahguthrie‘s full interview with John Clune, the attorney for Brett Kavanaugh’s second accuser Deborah Ramirez. pic.twitter.com/4yhNzK8s2V
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 26, 2018
On Tuesday, a committee aide said Ramirez has refused to comply with the committee’s process of talking to Ramirez in preparation for a hearing. “The Ramirez legal team has declined to comply with the committee’s established process and investigation and seem to prefer working through the media,” the aide told the Washington Examiner.
The aide said Ramirez’s team instead wants an FBI investigation, and Clune confirmed that demand Wednesday.
“We don’t go straight to trial and skip the investigation process,” Clune said. “We have a process that’s set up on how to do the background investigations into potential candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court and to cheat that process is going to end up with an unintelligent outcome.”
He also said he wants an FBI investigation first because it is the only “intelligent way” to bring out the truth of what happened.
Late Tuesday, conservatives were circulating a video from 1991 that they said shows Ramirez is likely overestimating the need for an FBI investigation. In that video, then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said FBI investigations into these matters only log comments and claims from witnesses to the alleged event, but don’t reach any conclusions.
Ramirez alleged over the weekend that she remembers seeing Kavanaugh appear to be moving like he was zipping up his pants after someone expose their genitalia to her at a college party at Yale over three decades ago.
A week earlier, Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old professor, accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly groping her at a high school get together 36 years ago. Kavanaugh denies the claims.
Ford’s legal team previously said she would not testify before Congress until the FBI completed a full investigation into the allegations, but Ford and Kavanaugh are set to testify before the committee panel Thursday.
The vote to move Kavanaugh’s confirmation forward is tentatively scheduled for Friday.
