The FBI Is Reportedly Allowed To Interview Only Four Of Kavanaugh's Classmates

It was good news for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's critics when the Senate announced that the FBI would carry out an investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct against him (allegations which he has denied) before the vote on whether to confirm him to the Court came to the full Senate. However, it's turning out that his critics might not be so pleased with the scope of the investigation. The FBI's Kavanaugh investigation will only include classmates who support his story, thus limiting the information it could turn up in support of his accusers' stories.

The FBI's investigation will take the form of a limited background check rather than an in-depth criminal investigation, and it will only include interviews with four witnesses, according to The New York Times. NBC reported that the White House had purposefully limited the investigation's scope to covering the allegations from Kavanaugh's first two accusers, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. President Donald Trump denied this in a tweet on Saturday, saying that the investigation was entirely in the hands of the FBI.

"NBC News incorrectly reported (as usual) that I was limiting the FBI investigation of Judge Kavanaugh, and witnesses, only to certain people," Trump tweeted on Saturday. "Actually, I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion. Please correct your reporting!"

The four witnesses on the FBI's list as it stands at the moment are Kavanaugh's high school friend Mark Judge; Ford's high school friend Leland Keyser; P.J. Smythe, another person Ford said attended the party where the alleged assault took place; and Ramirez, who accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at Yale, according to The Times.

On Friday, Judge wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee saying that he would cooperate with any FBI investigation, ABC News wrote. Previously, though, Judge had backed Kavanaugh's account, claiming that he "never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes."

Keyser has said that she doesn't remember the party where Ford alleged the incident happened, but she did say that she believes Ford's account, according to CBS News. Her lawyer submitted a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee reiterating the statement that while Keyser believes Ford, "the simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate [Ford's account] because she has no recollection of the incident in question."

Smyth also issued a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that he had "no knowledge of the party in question; nor ... any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh," according to Business Insider. Ramirez, finally, made her allegation about a second incident involving Kavanaugh in an interview published in The New Yorker. She has made it clear from the beginning, however, that she doesn't remember the alleged incident clearly, because it happened at a party where they were playing drinking games — but that there were potentially classmates who would be able to help her back it up.

Since her allegation came out, multiple people who were classmates of Kavanaugh's at Yale have come out saying that he misrepresented his drinking habits to the Senate Judiciary Committee, CNN reported. So far, though, these people are not included in the FBI's list of people to speak to during the investigation, at least according to The Times' reporting.