White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that the Trump administration is not going to interfere in the FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“We’re not trying to interfere,” Conway said of the White House on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The White House is not getting involved in the FBI investigation in that way,” Conway said when asked if the president had directed the FBI to look only at some of the women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
{mosads}She added that the president “very much respects the independence” of the FBI.
NBC News reported that the White House is limiting the scope of the investigation to two women who have accused Kavanaugh, and that the FBI is not looking into the claims made by Julie Swetnick’s that Kavanaugh was involved in a gang rape scheme in high school.
Conway described the investigation as being “limited in scope” and “not…a fishing expedition,” but said that the FBI would determine exactly how narrow the investigation will be.
“That’s up to the FBI,” Conway said when asked what ‘limited scope’ specifically meant.
The FBI were tasked Friday to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.
It is unclear whether the FBI will investigate Swetnick’s allegations that Kavanaugh helped drug women in college to set up “gang rapes” and was present when she was gang raped herself.
However, the agency is reportedly digging into the allegations presented by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.
Ramirez in a New Yorker report last Sunday alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a college party in the 1980s.
Ford accused Kavanaugh of attempting to sexually assault her at a party in the summer of 1982 and testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her accusation last Thursday.
Kavanaugh has unequivocally denied all three allegations, which he reiterated in his own testimony Thursday.