UPDATE: President Donald Trump said that he did not personally use his authority to limit the FBI investigation, and the White House in fact instructed the FBI to interview any and all “necessary” witnesses.
Original Report
Julie Swetnick, Brett Kavanaugh’s third accuser and client of lawyer Michael Avenatti, will not have her claims investigated as part of the week-long FBI investigation into Kavanaugh.
The first two accusers presented by The New Yorker will have their claims investigated: Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez.
The Wall Street Journal reports: “The parameters of the FBI probe don’t include interviewing Julie Swetnick, who said this week the Supreme Court nominee attended a party decades ago where she was gang-raped, according to one of the people. The focus on the first two accusations suggests that the White House doesn’t consider Ms. Swetnick’s accusations credible, people familiar with the instructions said, a decision that drew criticism from Ms. Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenatti. The Wall Street Journal has attempted to corroborate Ms. Swetnick’s account, contacting dozens of former classmates and colleagues, but couldn’t reach anyone with knowledge of her allegations. No friends have come forward to publicly support her claims.
Wall Street Journal passage ends
Democrats began distancing themselves from Avenatti before he even came forward with his accuser, and the New York Times re-wrote one of their articles in part to downgrade the relevance of Avenatti’s claims.
“On March 1, 2001, Swetnick had a restraining order filed against her by an ex-boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, as first reported by Big League Politics. The case was dismissed less than two weeks later. Vinneccy said he and Swetnick dated for four years before they broke up, at which point Vinneccy said Swetnick began to threaten him. The threats reportedly continued, even after Vinneccy got married and had a child.
“Right after I broke up with her, she was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,” Vinneccy told Politico. “I know a lot about her. She’s not credible at all. Not at all.'”