Tad Low was a year behind Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at Yale and tried to report a tip to the FBI on Saturday.
It was supremely frustrating, he told the Daily News.
A media entrepreneur now living in New York, Low said he doesn’t know Kavanaugh or any of his accusers personally, but he witnessed something at the nominee’s fraternity house back in the 1980s that was so disturbing, he proactively called the feds over the weekend.
“I can’t tell you what I saw, but I’ve been on this planet for quite some time, and what I saw was seared into my brain,” Low, 52, said during a phone interview Monday.
“It was shocking,” he said.
Low said he’s not even sure if Kavanaugh attended that Delta Kappa Epsilon party held during the 1987-1988 academic year, but Kavanaugh was a member of DKE before receiving his undergraduate degree in 1987, and he was still involved in campus life at the time, attending Yale Law.
Low said the party in question helped usher in the frat’s newly purchased, first standalone residence, so maybe the novelty of the venue was an extra draw.
“If indeed Kavanaugh was present at the event, the FBI should investigate,” Low told The News on Monday. “We know (Kavanaugh) liked to keep calendars. How hard would it be to subpoena the calendar and interview a person I know was inside the party?”
Low steadfastly refused to describe what he saw peeking through a window at the DKE house that night. He said disclosing what he knows could color other people’s memories and make it harder for investigators to corroborate the wild story with other witnesses.
He would only say it was horrible enough that he went the extra mile to proactively call the FBI and invite the scrutiny – and possible penalties – of an FBI interview into his life.
Low described his experience trying to report his tip as an “embarrassment” to the agency.
He said he repeatedly waited on hold — at least 15 minutes at one point — and got transferred around. When he finally reached a “low-level” employee who took his information, the staffer asked no followup questions and ended the conversation without so much as a reference number, he said.
When hours passed with no return call, Low tried a different FBI office and was told agents weren’t working over the weekend, he said.
Low said he called the FBI again Monday but was still waiting for a reply.
“They at least acknowledged they had a record of my call and said it has been ‘submitted out’ accordingly. I don’t know, maybe they threw it in trash,” he told The News. “They won’t even send me an email confirming I submitted my claim. They said if I’d like to add additional information, I could wait on hold for another 30 minutes.”
Low said he understands his report might lead nowhere, but it could also lead to something major, in his opinion, and the “clock is ticking.”
“The phone thing was really embarrassing – all the waiting on hold, listening to the bad elevator music,” Low said.
“If it’s true the White House and (Senate Judiciary) Committee are truly serious about learning all they can, why not at least set up a special Kavanaugh hotline or dedicate some agents? If it’s just one week, can we get some manpower?” he asked.
President Trump nominated Kavanaugh over the summer to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. The bid seemed like a lock until multiple women stepped forward to say Kavanaugh sexually assaulted them while intoxicated at parties in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh has disputed the claims and testified under oath last week that while it’s true he very much likes beer, he has never blacked out from drinking too much alcohol.
President Trump reopened the FBI investigation of Kavanaugh’s background on Friday, giving it a narrow scope and seven-day time limit.
Low said Monday he hopes the investigation will be thorough enough to look into his tip. He further covered his bases by contacting Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein, he said.
“It would be great to hear back,” he told The News. “I did reach out to (the senators) with full details of my account.”
