In opening the Friday hearing proceeding a vote to send Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the full Senate, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said that his staff “made eight requests. Yes, eight requests. For evidence from attorneys for [Deborah Ramirez].” He blamed the fact that no evidence related to Ramirez would be on “stonewalling” by her attorneys.
But Ronnan Farrow and Jane Mayer are back at the New Yorker on Friday morning with emails that show that a senior staffer for Grassley “declined to proceed” with a series of phone calls to Ramirez. Instead, Republican staffer Mike Davis insisted that any further communication be in written form. The action threw a wrench into what was then a negotiation to bring Ramirez evidence forward and proceeded a complete breakdown of the discussion.
Deborah Ramirez’s attorney, John Clune, called on the FBI to investigate. Clune also informed Davis that they were asking for an FBI investigation. Clune then made multiple attempts to set up a phone call with the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As mentioned by Grassley, Davis asked if Ramirez had additional information. Clune said that she did. Davis asked if she would speak to staff investigators. Clune said that she would.
Clune then asked how the committee intended to proceed so they could advise Ramirez on what the next steps would be. Instead of responding to that request, Davis insisted that Ramirez’s legal team provide any additional evidence they had in written form. And Davis refused to agree to a call to discuss the how the information or accusations would be until Ramirez turned over her information and agreed to talk to investigators.
What Davis did not only put the negotiations at loggerheads, it shows every sign of deliberately being set up so that Ramirez’s attorneys could not proceed. They were being asked to give up all information and agree to have Deborah Ramirez testify without being given any guarantees about the process. And multiple attempts from Clune and others did nothing to move Grassley’s staff to a position that offered any protection, or even information, to Ramirez.
Heather Sawyer, the single Democratic staffer who was being copied on these emails responded in email.
Sawyer: Ms. Ramirez’s counsel have repeatedly requested to speak with the Committee, on a bipartisan basis, to determine how to proceed. You refused. I’ve never encountered an instance where the Committee has refused even to speak with an individual or counsel. I am perplexed as to why this is happening here, except that it seems designed to ensure that the Majority can falsely claim that Ms. Ramirez and her lawyers refused to cooperate. That simply is not true.
Davis refused to budge. Instead, he continued to insist that Ramirez provide any additional information, and promise to testify, before providing any information about how her testimony would be handled.
For Clune’s part he responded to each email from Davis, but worried that “any disclosures we might file would be shared inappropriately with Judge Kavanaugh or others to prepare and attack Debbie’s account.” Which, based on the way that Kavanaugh was prepared at the White House, with the cooperation of every Republican senator, to face Christine Blasey Ford, was a very good assumption.
The very last step in this exchange: Clune sent a query to Davis. It was received. There was no reply.
Grassley opened the Friday hearings insisting that Deborah Ramirez was not cooperating with the committee. Which is hard to do when the committee won’t talk.