Flake and senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were instrumental last week in holding up Kavanaugh's confirmation vote. They forced the White House to open the supplemental background investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against the judge.
The FBI has only until Saturday to conduct that investigation, but the White House has given it clearance to interview anyone it wants to.
The new guidance, described to the Associated Press by a person familiar with it, was issued to the FBI in response to Democratic and news media pushback that the scope of the probe was too narrow.
In recent days the FBI has questioned at least four people about accusations of misconduct against Kavanaugh dating to when he was in high school and university. Among the witnesses interviewed were men who California university professor Christine Blasey Ford says were present at a party of teenagers in the early 1980s at which she says she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh.
The FBI is also believed to have interviewed Deborah Ramirez, who told the New Yorker Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her when both were students at Yale. It may also interview Julie Swetnick, who claims Kavanaugh was physically abusive towards girls in high school and was at a house party in 1982 where she says she was the victim of a gang rape.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the FBI and White House yesterday that listed more than two dozen people they would like to see contacted.
Trump, addressing concerns about the probe's expansiveness at a news conference yesterday, said he wants the FBI to do a "comprehensive" investigation and "it wouldn't bother me at all" if agents pursued accusations made by the three women who have come forward. But he also said Senate Republicans were determining the parameters of the investigation.
The revised guidance was aimed at promoting an investigation that could tamp down Democratic criticism and satisfy on-the-fence Republicans about its thoroughness and fairness while also ensuring a fixed deadline to prevent the probe from becoming open-ended and spanning weeks.
In a statement on Monday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's said he was "deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterisation by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale". Charles "Chad" Ludington, who teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was a friend of Kavanaugh's at Yale and said Kavanaugh was "a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker".
While saying youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh's statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- AP
