The Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had insisted that their investigators were as capable of investigating the allegations as the FBI background checkers. They had the same subpoena powers, and the penalty for lying to them was the same as the penalty for lying to the FBI. In fact, they had already referred Senator Whitehouse’s constituent for investigation by the FBI for his “rape boat” allegations. Now, as the FBI investigation began to wrap up, the Democrats realized that the Bureau had simply taken statements from witnesses and compiled them in a report, much as the Senate Judiciary Committee would have done. The report was expected Wednesday night, and McConnell set up a key procedural vote for Friday.
It was time to move the goalposts again. That night, having received the hearing they asked for, as well as an FBI inquiry, Democrats attacked the breadth of the investigation. In another New Yorker article, Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow complained that the FBI had not interviewed all of Kavanaugh’s Yale classmates.4
Don McGahn, who received updates during the investigation, kept senators informed about its progress. When the investigation was completed, the report was kept in the Office of Senate Security, a secured room. The report could not be photocopied, and only senators and selected committee staff members from each party could view it.
The unusual security measures were a response to the Democrats’ handling of confidential documents in the first hearings. Cory Booker’s “Spartacus” incident changed the way the committee handled secure information and caused many senators and their staff to worry that they might not be given access to sensitive executive branch documents for future confirmations. Despite the high security, the FBI files were more readily available than they usually are in judicial vettings. The Office of Senate Security was open around the clock for senators, and any senator, not only Judiciary Committee members, could see the file.
Senators were guided in their review of the lengthy file by the Judiciary Committee staff. Time slots were divided between Republicans and Democrats, and many senators went through the documents with colleagues. Mike Lee, for instance, read from a single shared copy of the documents to a group of colleagues that included Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, and Ben Sasse. Flake and Collins returned many times to review the documents, each spending several hours looking at the supplemental information, including the notes from the “tip line,” which anybody could call to report information about the relevant parties. They were satisfied that there was no corroborating evidence to support the allegations. In fact, there was new information that cast doubt on the original accusations.
Leland Keyser reportedly told the investigators that she had felt pressure to revise her statement about the alleged incident. After Ford testified, Keyser submitted an additional statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee indicating that although she did not remember the event that Ford described—as she had previously stated—she nevertheless believed Ford. She reportedly decided to amend her original statement after communications with persons who were friends of both Keyser and Ford. One of these persons, the Wall Street Journal reported, was Monica McLean, the retired FBI agent who had been identified in the letter from Ford’s ex-boyfriend as the person Ford coached on passing a polygraph when McLean was applying for a position with the FBI.5 (McLean told ABC News that she had never received assistance of any kind in connection with a polygraph.)6 The supplemental FBI investigation reportedly included text messages from McLean to Keyser encouraging her to amend her first statement with the statement of belief in Ford’s story, a charge McLean denied.
The inclusion of Leland Keyser in the initial story caught the attention of high school friends, who remembered Keyser as a legendary and well-liked athlete. She and Ford had been good friends. If she had remembered the party, or anything approximating it, she would have said so.
Those who knew the women thought it strange that Ford had thrust Keyser into the spotlight without any warning. Keyser reportedly felt “blindsided.” High school friends were particularly bothered that Ford had brought attention to Keyser’s health problems—neck and back surgeries and their pain management, which had sidelined her impressive career as the Georgetown University golf coach—in front of millions watching the hearings. Family members told the Daily Mail that the pressure to confirm Ford’s allegation and the slight in front of the Senate had upset Keyser.7
These reports were not entirely accurate, and what actually happened was both simpler and more complex. Keyser simply could not remember anything like what Ford described, and saying so was difficult.
Keyser, a registered Democrat, was opposed to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. In 2018 she was developing a liberal podcast with Bob Beckel, the Democratic political operative who was her first husband and the father of her two children. She was completely taken aback when the Senate Judiciary Committee asked her about Ford’s allegation. She wished she could have corroborated the story but was unable to. She couldn’t recall even meeting Kavanaugh.
Keyser and Ford, who met in seventh grade, were part of a close circle of friends at Holton-Arms who still keep in touch. In their youth, Keyser felt protective of Ford. She drove her around in a wood-paneled station wagon. Ford’s other regular driver was her brother Tom Blasey, who was only a year older but in the same grade.
The summer of 1982 was one that Keyser remembered well. Her grandmother had introduced her to golf only the previous summer, and she immediately fell in love with the game and the life lessons it afforded her. She had gotten her dream job at Congressional Country Club, working for the renowned Bob Benning in the golf pro shop. The schedule was crazy—sometimes as many as sixty hours a week. Her free time was spent on the golf course, playing until dark. She loved the challenge of the sport, which would shape her life, her relationships, and even her career.
That summer, instead of hanging out with her friends, she focused on golf and playing tournaments. Athletics and Holton-Arms were central to her life then. Her immediate family didn’t have much money, so her grandparents were paying for school. She appreciated the opportunity and didn’t want to squander it. After Holton, she attended the University of Virginia and became the first person in her family to graduate from college.
Keyser had attended Ford’s wedding, but apart from a brief exchange at a gathering of high school friends, she had had little interaction with her in the ten years prior to the allegation about Kavanaugh. The past five years in particular had been difficult. Her health challenges included daily chronic pain and addiction, and she had recently had a knee replaced. Her second marriage had ended in divorce, she had moved twice, her mother and father had passed away, and two siblings had died from addiction. Keyser herself had been in recovery for years, and her twelve-step program kept her keenly aware of her daily challenges.
On June 28, 2018, the day after Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, Ford sent Keyser a Facebook Messenger note out of the blue. It read, “Kinda freaking out that Brett K who tried to rape me in high school may be going on to the Supreme Court.” It was the first time Keyser had ever heard about the alleged assault, and she found the message both surprising and alarming.
On Monday, September 17, the day after the Washington Post story about Ford was published, Keyser’s housekeeper came up to her bedroom to tell her that a friend was waiting for her downstairs. She came down to find Emma Brown, the reporter from the Post, sitting at her kitchen table. Brown identified herself and began talking about the night of the alleged assault. When asked, Keyser said she believed her friend Christine. When Brown indicated that Keyser herself had supposedly been at the gathering, however, Keyser quickly texted two friends of hers and Ford’s, letting them know there was a reporter in her kitchen and asking if they knew why. While the friends already knew who the reporter was, they told Keyser to speak to no reporters at all, so she asked Brown to leave.