Leland Keyser, the high school friend Christine Blasey Ford counted on to corroborate her sexual assault charges, has told the FBI she has no knowledge of the supposed 1982 party or the accused, Brett Kavanaugh.
Howard J. Walsh III, her attorney, told The Washington Times that she met with the FBI on Saturday.
Asked if she had repeated the same two statements she provided the Senate Judiciary Committee, the lawyer answered, “yes.”
Ms. Ford accuses Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh, and his friend, Mark Judge, of trying to rape her at a home in Montgomery County near the Columbia Country Club.
They both deny the charge. Patrick Smyth, a third party-goer identified by Ms. Ford, also denies he attended any such party.
That left Ms. Keyser, Ms. Ford’s best friend at Holton-Arms school, as the remaining witness of the five people who supposedly attended.
Before the FBI interview, Mr. Walsh submitted two statements to the Senate committee, both saying the same thing.
“Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford,” Mr. Walsh said.
After Mr. Trump ordered an FBI investigation last Friday, Mr. Walsh submitted a reaffirming statement to the committee.
“Ms. Keyser asked that I communicate to the Committee her willingness to cooperate fully with the FBI’s supplemental investigation of Dr. Christine Ford’s allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” Mr. Walsh said. “However, as my client has already made clear, she does not know Judge Kavanaugh and has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford.”
All told, she has now provided the same account three times.
In her testimony last week, Ms. Ford brushed aside Ms. Keyser’s statement, saying that her friend has been ill and is focused on herself.
Ms. Ford: “Leland has significant health challenges, and I’m happy that she’s focusing on herself and getting the health treatment that she needs, and she let me know that she needed her lawyer to take care of this for her, and she texted me right afterward with an apology and good wishes, and et cetera, So I’m glad that she’s taking care of herself. I don’t expect that P.J. and Leland would remember this evening. It was a very unremarkable party. It was not one of their more notorious parties, because nothing remarkable happened to them that evening. They were downstairs.”
Ms. Ford has said she doesn’t know where the party occurred, how she got there or how she got to her parents’ home, which was perhaps 10 miles away. She has said she wasn’t given a ride.
• Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com.
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