Trump, White House Offer Partial Denials Of Reports Of Limiting Kavanaugh Probe

By Matt Shuham
September 30, 2018 9:43 am

President Donald Trump and a senior White House staffer, Kellyanne Conway, offered limited denials Saturday and Sunday to reports that the White House has placed limits on the FBI’s background investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.


Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday, Conway said the President “respects the independence of the FBI, and feels, as he said last night, that they should be looking at anything they think is credible within this limited scope.”

The definition of “limited scope,” Conway said when pressed, would be “up to the FBI.”

Did White House Counsel Don McGahn say “you can interview these witnesses but don’t interview these witnesses?” Tapper asked.

“I don’t think Don McGahn would do that, but I have not talked to him about it,” Conway responded, not answering the key assertion of recent reports from NBC News and The New York Times.

Trump offered a more firm denial of NBC News’ breaking report Saturday, but, as the Times noted, “the White House can order investigators to further examine the allegations if their findings from the four witness [Mark Judge, Leland Ingham Keyser, P.J. Smyth and Deborah Ramirez] interviews open new avenues of inquiry, and Mr. Trump seemed to stress that part of the plan in a tweet late on Saturday”:

Link to tweet