NEW YORK — Four out of five people at that alleged drinking party in 1982 dispute Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s “rape attempt” claims. The fifth is Ford herself. Her memory of that gathering, at the eye of the cyclone that encircles Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation, clashes with those of everyone else whom she says was on the scene.
Dr. Ford, a clinical-psychology professor at Palo Alto University, penned a letter on July 30 to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D – California). According to CNN, Ford wrote: “The assault occurred in a suburban Maryland area home at a gathering that included me and four others.” Ford, 51, claims that Kavanaugh, 53, sexually assaulted her when they respectively were 15 and 17.
Ford said that during an alcohol-fueled party, one summer evening, a “stumbling drunk” Kavanaugh, tossed her onto a bed, climbed atop her, fondled her, tried to remove her swim suit, and covered her mouth with his hand, to muffle her screams.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Ford said.
Next, she claimed Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge stepped in from the sidelines. He “jumped onto the bed,” Ford added. “The pile toppled” onto the floor and, Ford wrote, she escaped.
Despite Ford’s expressed clarity about these aspects of this alleged event, much of the rest of this boozy bash escapes her entirely.
“Ford said she does not remember how the gathering came together the night of the incident,” according to her first published interview, in the Washington Post on September 16. “She also doesn’t recall who owned the house or how she got there.” The Post continued: “She isn’t sure how she got home.”
Among the four other people Ford says were at this gathering, four contradict her account.
• “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation,” Kavanaugh said September 14. “I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
“This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone,” Kavanaugh said in a second statement on September 17. “I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the Committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.”
Kavanaugh repeatedly has stated his unconditional willingness to appear before Judiciary at any time, to address these charges. In contrast, Ford tentatively agreed to testify next Thursday, after what Democrats call Republican “bullying” — namely bending over backwards to let Ford breach five different deadlines and then decide to show up once senators accommodated several unprecedented demands. At this writing, negotiations continue so that Ford can tell her story, which she initially said she couldn’t wait to do.
Kavanaugh now will bolster his strong verbal denials with exculpatory, documentary evidence. He reportedly will give Judiciary his 1982 calendar. Its entries show him vacationing out of town most of that summer. It also mentions several parties, but none that corresponds with any of the names whom Ford has invoked.
• “Dr. Christine Blasey Ford remembers me as the other person in the room during the alleged assault,” Mark Judge declared in a September 18 letter from his attorney to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “In fact, I have no memory of this alleged incident. Brett Kavanaugh and I were friends in high school but I do not recall the party described in Dr. Ford’s letter. More to the point, I never saw Brett act in the manner Ford describes.”
• “I understand that I have been identified by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as ‘PJ’ who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post,” Patrick J. Smyth wrote the Senate Judiciary Committee, CNN reported September 19. “I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh.”
• On September 23, The Post reported on “Leland Keyser, a woman Ford told The Washington Post was present at the party…” The Post explained that Keyser “was close friends with Ford and that she believes Ford’s allegation.” However, despite her faith in Ford’s claims, The Post explained that Keyser’s attorney sent the Senate Judiciary Committee an e-mail that says Keyser “does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present.”
Beyond this alleged bash, two of Ford’s former classmates stepped forward to defend her. Samantha Guerry told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Many women of my class have come forward to me in these last few days and said, ‘I had similar experiences in high school.’” She added, “Not with Brett Kavanaugh, but with other boys in our community.”
This is what collective guilt looks like.
Cristina King Miranda stated on Facebook: “The incident DID happen, many of us heard about it in school.”
But, when NPR’s Nina Totenberg asked her about this on September 20, Miranda said: “That it happened or not, I have no idea. I can’t say that it did or didn’t. In my post, I was, you know, empowered, and I was sure it probably did. I had no idea that I would have to now go to the specifics and defend it before 50 cable channels and have my face spread all over MSNBC news and Twitter.”
Unhappy with all of this press attention, Miranda posted this on Twitter:
“To all media, I will not be doing anymore interviews. No more circus. To clarify my post: I do not have first hand [sic] knowledge of the incident that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford mentions, and I stand by my support for Christine. That’s it. I don’t have more to say on the subject.”
Like Miranda, none of us can say whether this “rape attempt” did or didn’t happen. What we can say for sure is this: Dr. Christina Blasey Ford says it happened, but all of her alleged eyewitnesses contradict her story. Moreover, two of Ford’s self-declared character witnesses cannot back her up, either.
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor and an emeritus media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.