Sen. Michael Bennet said he hopes the FBI will conduct a more thorough investigation in light of new allegations tied to Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, while stopping short of some of his 2020 Democratic presidential rivals’ explicit calls to impeach the associate justice.
“Well, I don’t believe he should have been on the court to begin with. I voted against him,” the Colorado Democrat said Sunday evening on MSNBC. “But I do think we need to have due process here. We can’t give up on that.”
The New York Times reported on Saturday that none of the witnesses referred to the FBI by the legal team of Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Justice Kavanaugh of thrusting his penis at her at a party when they were at Yale, were ultimately interviewed.
The paper on Sunday also added a clarification to the article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, saying that a separate unnamed female student who allegedly experienced a similar incident declined to be interviewed and that friends say she does not recall the incident.
Justice Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied claims of sexual misconduct and improper behavior that became a central part of his confirmation process last year.
“We know that there are a number of people that were not interviewed,” Mr. Bennet said. “And I think they should be interviewed. And I think that the Senate and the House should see what the results of that investigation.”
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“What we are discovering now is that the FBI should have conducted the investigation that was warranted at the time,” he said. “And as you have reported, there were more than 20 witnesses that were named that were never interviewed by the FBI.”
“I don’t know if that was entirely the FBI’s fault, because the schedule, you know, was so short that the committee had agreed upon,” he added. “But that’s what should have been done to begin with. And I hope that’s what will be done now.”
Several of Mr. Bennet’s Democratic presidential rivals, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala D. Harris of California, have called for Justice Kavanaugh’s impeachment in light of the new report.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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