The FBI has contacted Deborah Ramirez, one of three women who have accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, as part of a background investigation into Kavanaugh ahead of his confirmation vote.

The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the investigation, reported that it was not clear if Ramirez had been interviewed yet. The report confirmed the agency was also following up on a sexual-assault allegation from California professor Christine Blasey Ford.

The Los Angeles Times reported late Friday that FBI agents began to zero in on potential witnesses immediately after President Donald Trump authorized the agency to conduct a supplemental background check on Kavanaugh, looking to schedule an interview “as early as tonight.”

Ramirez, a former Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh’s, alleged that he exposed himself to her at a dorm-room party during the 1983-4 school year. And Ford testified to the Senate earlier this week that when they were in high school, the 17-year-old Kavanaugh pinned her down, put his hand over her mouth, and groped her while his friend watched at a Bethesda, Maryland, party in the early ’80s.

After Ford’s testimony, Kavanaugh vehemently denied her account and said the process had become “a national disgrace” and “a circus.”

Ford’s previously anonymous account was first published in the Washington Post, a week before The New Yorker published an article detailing Ramirez’s allegation.

Ramirez said she was reluctant to come forward because she was drinking at the time of the incident and there are gaps in her memory, though she said she could recall key details.

“I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she told The New Yorker. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.”

Ramirez also recalled another student nearby yelling, “Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face.”

After Ford and Ramirez came forward with their accounts, another woman named Julie Swetnick alleged in a sworn declaration that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge would “spike” punch with drugs or alcohol so that girls could be “gang raped” by a “train” of boys. Swetnick said she was one of the victims of such an attack, though she did not name Kavanaugh as her attacker.

Federal investigators were have been given one week to complete their investigation, and several other witnesses, like Judge and Ford’s friend Leland Keyser, have indicated that they are willing to cooperate fully with law enforcement.

There have been a lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, but none have looked as funny as Holmes & Watson, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. The Step Brothers stars reunite to play the iconic duo in a wacky take on a Sherlock Holmes mystery, complete with the invention of the selfie, a bit part for WWE Superstar Braun Strowman, and a hopeless amount of killer bees. 

Iraq has said it “regrets” the decision of the United States to shut its consulate in the southern city of Basra which has been rocked by weeks of deadly protests, while Iran has accused Washington of making “false accusations” to pressure Baghdad.

“The ministry regrets the American decision to pull its staff out of Basra,” Iraq’s foreign minsitry said in a statement on Saturday.

The US on Friday announced the closure of its consulate in Basra and said it is relocating diplomatic personnel assigned there alleging increasing threats from Iran and Iran-backed armed groups.

Blaming Iran for “indirect fire”, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said consular duties will be taken over by the embassy in Baghdad, while his office issued an advisory urging Americans not to travel to Iraq.

The decision further escalated the tension between the US and Iran, which is the target of increasing economic sanctions by the Trump administration.

Iran rejected what it called the US “propaganda and false accusations”, insisting it condemned any attacks on diplomatic sites.

“Iran sees the absurd US justification which follow weeks of propaganda and false accusations against Iran and Iraqi forces as playing a blame-game,” said the country’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

He said Tehran condemns any aggression against diplomats and diplomatic sites, and charged that the US move was a pretext for promoting “insecurity in Iraq” and to “pressure the country’s government”.

US sanctions on Iran

In May, Trump withdrew the US from an international deal to put curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for easing sanctions.

France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia have stayed in the pact, vowing to save it despite the restoration of US sanctions. The rial has lost 40 percent of its value against the US dollar since April.

Iran has blamed US sanctions for the currency’s fall, saying the measures amount to a “political, psychological and economic” war on Tehran.

Iran has also accused the US and Israel of involvement in a deadly attack at a military parade in southwestern Iran this month.

Basra has been at the centre of protests that broke out in July before spreading to other parts of the country, as demonstrators railed against poor services and corruption among government officials.

Protesters set fire to several government buildings as well as headquarters of political parties and groups backed by Iran, which saw its consulate in Basra burnt to the ground.

In a rare attack in Baghdad early September, three mortar rounds were fired into the Green Zone, a heavily fortified area which is home to the Iraqi parliament, government offices and the US embassy.

Iran is the only other major outside power present in Iraq, alongside bitter foe the US, which had led the 2003 invasion that toppled the then president Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON – The second woman who came forward with sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been contacted by the FBI, her attorney told USA TODAY. 

Deborah Ramirez claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and shoved his penis in her face at a dorm party while they were students at Yale University. Her allegations first appeared in the New Yorker. 

Kavanaugh denies these allegations and others that have been lodged against him. 

Her attorney, John Clune, said Ramirez is cooperating with the FBI as agents investigate the batch of allegations in Kavanaugh’s reopened background check. 

“We can confirm the FBI has reached out to interview Ms. Ramirez and she has agreed to cooperate with their investigation,” Clune said in a statement. “Out of respect for the integrity of the process, we will have no further comment at this time.” 

The FBI investigation was ordered by President Donald Trump Friday after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-AZ., a key deciding vote for Republicans, said he would only confirm Kavanaugh if the investigation was done. 

Along with Ramirez, a friend of Christine Blasey Ford, who also lodged allegations about Kavanaugh and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, says she will comply with the FBI. 

More: Looking ahead to what’s next for the Supreme Court nominee

More: GOP senator suggests Christine Blasey Ford may have ‘false memories’

More: Jeff Flake has managed to frustrate all sides in past 2 years

A lawyer for Leland Ingham Keyser, a friend of Christine Blasey Ford, said she will “cooperate fully” with an FBI investigation, according to CNN. 

“Ms. Keyser does not refute Dr. Ford’s account, and she has already told the press that she believes Dr. Ford’s account,” Keyser’s attorney, Howard Walsh, wrote in the letter, which was sent to the committee overnight Friday. “However, the simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate it because she has no recollection of the incident in question.”

 

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U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is dismissing the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of Christine Blasey Ford about her alleged assault years ago by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

One reason: Johnson says Ford, a clinical psychology professor in California, may be experiencing “false memories.”

In a video taken by a local filmmaker of Johnson at Mitchell International Airport on Friday afternoon, the Wisconsin Republican senator said he would be voting to confirm Kavanaugh, calling him a “good, decent person” and a “great judge.”

Asked what he believes motivated Ford to testify this week, Johnson responded: “Read about false memories. Read about people who have actually confessed to crimes and then later proven totally innocent, OK?”

Pressed again on whether Ford’s testimony was based on false memories, the second-term senator said: “There are a number of explanations for it. That would be one of them. Again, regardless of exactly — nobody knows what happened 36 years ago.”

False memory is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when someone recollects events that never actually happened. Johnson was not asked why he considered Ford’s memory as suspect but not Kavanaugh’s. 

On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 11-10, along partisan lines to recommend President Donald Trump’s pick for the high court. The committee action came a day after riveting testimony by Ford and Kavanaugh before the panel.

It is not clear when the entire Senate will vote now that the FBI is looking into Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house party more than 35 years ago.

The Johnson video was taken by Joel Van Haren, a 30-year-old Milwaukee filmmaker whose work has appeared on VICE, the BBC, the New York Times and Al Jazeera America, for which he won a National Headliner Award in 2014, according to his IMDb profile. He shared the video of his Johnson chat with the Journal Sentinel.

Van Haren caught up with Johnson, dressed in a pink button-down and blue jeans, as he was walking alone from his gate following a flight from Washington, D.C. Van Haren said he was surprised Johnson brought up false memories unprompted.

“I went up to Sen. Johnson to speak to him as a local constituent,” Van Haren said by email. “It’s not often we get face time with our elected officials like that.

“I was at the airport because I was just returning from a work trip in D.C., and saw an opportunity to hear from him directly.”

RELATED: Women gather in Milwaukee to support Christine Blasey Ford and to urge Ron Johnson to reject Brett Kavanaugh

RELATED: Leah Vukmir calls for Brett Kavanaugh confirmation while Tammy Baldwin remains opposed

RELATED: Milwaukee County Republicans’ tweet mocks accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh

And, with Johnson, you never know what he’s going to say. In the past, he has blamed climate change on sunspots, criticized “The Lego Movie” for being anti-business and suggested college professors could be replaced with Ken Burns’ documentaries.

In his interview with Van Haren, Johnson made clear that he’s already made up his mind.

“I’m going to vote for him,” Johnson said.

The senator was very dismissive of Ford’s testimony, adding, “There is no corroboration whatsoever. There’s all kinds of explanations for it. She seems sincere, but she’s completely used and abused by the Democrats, who abuse the process.”

As for the two other women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct during high school and college, Johnson also rejected their claims. 

“The New York Times wouldn’t even publish those, they were so uncorroborated,” he said. Here is a New York Times’ summary of the accusations by Julie Swetnick and Deborah Ramirez.

Johnson took Van Haren to be a liberal, saying at one point, “Sir, you’re not going to change my mind on this.” 

That’s when Johnson, who has never served on the Judiciary Committee, launched into his longest explanation for supporting Kavanaugh.

“I met the man. He’s a good, decent person,” Johnson bristled. “Democrats destroyed his life, you know? An incredibly unjust process. A bedrock principle of our system of justice is a presumption of innocence.

“Other than the accusation that’s completely uncorroborated, four witnesses — all of them deny it. What are you supposed to do? Presume he’s guilty?”

Johnson rejected Van Haren’s suggestion that Trump nominate someone with less baggage.

“My job is to evaluate this nominee,” the GOP senator said. “My evaluation is I’m going to vote to confirm. It’s that simple.”

RELATED:  Donald Trump orders FBI probe of Brett Kavanaugh

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.

 

 

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This first look at Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor on Doctor Who shows a typically scrambled post-regeneration Doctor — with a catch. The Doctor doesn’t know she’s a woman yet. To be fair, she seems to take the news in stride and is more interested in meeting her new buddies Ryan and Yaz. 

Still not ginger though. 

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — It all comes down to this. 

Entering the final day of play at the 2018 Ryder Cup, Team Europe holds a commanding 10-6 lead over Team USA entering Sunday’s singles matches. The Europeans rolled to a 3-1 win in Saturday morning’s fourball matches, while the Americans rebounded to split the afternoon foursomes 2-2.

If the U.S. has any chance at retaining the trophy and winning on foreign soil for the first time in 25 years, it’ll take a herculean in the final 12 matches. Whoever gets to 14.5 points first wins, but if there’s a at 14, the Americans will retain the cup.

Here’s the list of matches, with picks from our experts who are on the ground at Paris’ Le Golf National. 

Match 1
– Rory McIlroy vs. Justin Thomas, 6:05 a.m. ET

DiMeglio: McIlroy
Woodard: Halve

Match 2
– Paul Casey vs. Brooks Koepka, 6:17 a.m.

DiMeglio: Koepka
Woodard: Koepka

Match 3
– Justin Rose vs. Webb Simpson, 6:29 a.m.

DiMeglio: Rose
Woodard: Halve

Match 4
– Jon Rahm vs. Tiger Woods, 6:41 a.m.

DiMeglio: Woods
Woodard: Woods

Match 5
– Tommy Fleetwood vs. Tony Finau, 6:53 a.m.

DiMeglio: Finau
Woodard: Fleetwood

Match 6
– Ian Poulter vs. Dustin Johnson, 7:05 a.m.

DiMeglio: Johnson
Woodard: Johnson

Match 7
– Thorbjorn Olesen vs. Jordan Spieth, 7:17 a.m.

DiMeglio: Spieth
Woodard: Spieth

Match 8
– Sergio Garcia vs. Rickie Fowler, 7:29 a.m.

DiMeglio: Fowler
Woodard: Fowler

Match 9
– Francesco Molinari vs. Phil Mickelson, 7:41 a.m. 

DiMeglio: Halve
Woodard: Molinari

Match 10
– Tyrrell Hatton vs. Patrick Reed, 7:53 a.m.

DiMeglio: Reed
Woodard: Reed

Match 11
– Henrik Stenson vs. Bubba Watson, 8:05 a.m.

DiMeglio: Stenson
Woodard: Watson

Match 12
– Alex Noren vs. Bryson DeChambeau, 8:17 a.m.

DiMeglio: Noren
Woodard: Noren

Who wins the Ryder Cup?

DiMeglio: Europe wins 14.5-13.5
Woodard: United States wins 14-14

The emotional testimony of Christine Blasey Ford spurred a spike in calls to the National Sexual Assault hotline, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network that runs the hotline.

The number of people who called the hotline was “201% above average” the day she testified, the group said.

Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for nearly four hours on Thursday, outlining a sexual assault she alleged she suffered at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The California psychology professor went into painstaking detail, accusing the judge of holding her down on a bed at a party in 1982, trying to take off her clothes and putting his hand over her mouth to silence her calls for help.

Ford said she was “terrified” and only came forward after so many years because she felt it was her “civic duty.”

The high number of people reaching out to RAINN continued long after her testimony. The group reported “unprecedented wait times” for online chat services on Friday and Saturday.

RAINN spokeswoman Sara McGovern told CNN that the #MeToo movement overall has triggered “off the charts” demand for the group’s services, which are accessible at 800-656-HOPE or online.rainn.org.

“Our victim service programs went from helping about 15,000 victims per month to helping about 22,000 per month,” she said.

Aside from the Ford testimony, the past week marked another milestone in the #MeToo movement, when Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for a sexual assault in 2004.

While such high-profile markers may signal steps forward for the movement, they can also trigger painful memories for victims, clinical psychologist Jim Hopper told USA TODAY.

Hopper, a teaching associate at Harvard Medical School who specialized in trauma and writes the Sexual Assault and the Brain blog for Psychology Today, said other daily events can also prompt a resurgence of traumatic memories.    

It could be “revisiting the college you went to and walked by frat row, or undergoing cancer treatment and feeling vulnerable as you did when you were a kid who was abused.”

More: Tips for sexual assault survivors dealing with onslaught of triggering news

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