. laura: a bombshell criminal referral dropped by the senate judiciary today calls for a criminal investigation into the allegations made by michael avenatti and julie swetnick. joining us ed henry. what is the latest tonight? more trouble for michael avenatti starting with the fact that chuck grassley is pressing the justice department to investigate whether he and his client conspired to provide false statements to congress and tried to obstruct a senate investigation during the confirmation bat l or justice kavanaugh. she alleged kavanaugh was involved in gang rapes during high school and gave varying accounts. she said in the heat of partisan
senator grassley lays out the case where she submitted an affidavit and said brett kavanaugh spiked punch and targeted young women and participating in gang rapes. that s what she submitted under oath. an affidavit. later she goes on tv and says, i really don t remember any of that. and contradicts her affidavit. grassley said you can t submit a sworn statement to my committee and then go on tv and contradict that. that warrants an investigation of perjury and obstruction of justice. i read it. this is a compelling document. i think the fbi and the department of justice will investigate this. laura: the statutes involved of false statements, and
prince earlier this week and who was reportedly banned from leaving saudi arabia has actually been allowed to return to the united states. the head of the senate judiciary committee has referred attorney michael avenatti and one of his clients to the justice department for a criminal investigation over their allegations against supreme court justice brett kavanagh. committee chairman chuck grassly alleges that avenatti made false statements about kavanaugh during his confirmation process. last month avenatti tweeted a sworn declaration from swetnick in which she claimed kavanaugh was present at gang rapes. she also claimed that kavanaugh tried to get several women drunk at gatherings.
to peel the scabs off on the american public. on senator dianne feinstein i believe and other people believe that was the core of the democratic weakness in their blafr over the course of the past month. that letter to senator dianne feinstein, she received it in early july. the idea i understand, you know, dr. ford wanted to remain anonymous. there was a way to do that. there was a way to get that letter, the contents of that letter into the hearings. that was a critical point in what happened during these hearings. and the other thing was michael avenatti s client, the woman who reported she went to several parties, several parties justice kavanaugh was present and there was a series of gang rapes. preposterous story. it ran on the front pages of many newspapers. you know, i don t know what to
who could have predicted this would actually happen? brett kavanaugh went from a great circuit court judge the a guy involved in gang rapes, a sexual predator. some of the darkest days they had to be of brett kavanaugh s life. now he s back up and just sworn in. an associate justice of the supreme court. the only ron that happened is brett kavanaugh went to that hearing in the senate and connected with the american people and honestly and aggressively pushed back on those scurrilous charges. it was that moment that sealed his fate that he would be confirmed to the supreme court. people were so enthralled by the sheer honesty and emotion of all this. every american felt the pain of it. they know what it s like when someone gets railroad. it was a great injustice.