Christine Blasey Ford’s friend confided to FBI investigators she felt pressured to clarify her original statement regarding an alleged sexual assault involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh. (Fox News)
Ford identified Leland Ingham Keyser, a former classmate, as having attended a house party Maryland in the early 1980s, in which she accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed, attempting to remove her clothes and putting his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream.
Keyser originally said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 23 she “does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present.” After Kavanaugh and Ford testified in front of the committee last week, Keyser wrote a letter to the committee dated Sept. 29 that said she did not refute Ford’s claims, but “is unable to corroborate it because she has no recollection of the incident in question,” according to CNN.
Keyser told the investigators that she was — as the Journal notes — urged to clarify her statement by Monica McLean, a former FBI agent and friend of Ford’s, the paper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
McLean’s lawyer denied his client tried to influence Keyser to change her account, calling it “absolutely false.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee and White House received the FBI’s report on Kavanaugh yesterday.