Cortney got this earlier today. The third woman who alleges that Judge Brett Kavanaugh was involved in a gang-rape ring has come forward—and it’s even shoddier than the previous two. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination has been plunged into chaos, as multiple women have brought forward sexual misconduct allegations that have so far been baseless and without evidence. There aren’t any witnesses either. So, let’s dive into this latest allegation from Julie Swetnick, the woman porn lawyer Michael Avenatti found to help boost his 2020 presidential ambitions (via NBC News):
A third woman came forward Wednesday morning to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. In this case, the woman accused him of engaging in repeated lewd behavior with women at parties in the early 1980s, and of putting drugs or alcohol in punch to cause women to become inebriated so they could be "gang raped" by a group of male partygoers.
The woman, Julie Swetnick, said that she was the victim of one of these gang rapes in approximately 1982. She did not allege that Kavanaugh participated in the rape, but said he and his friend Mark Judge were present when it occurred, adding that she was incapacitated by a drug placed in her drink without her consent and was unable to fight off her attackers.
She also said she saw Kavanaugh and Judge lined up at other parties "waiting for their 'turn' with a girl inside the room."
[…]
In a sworn declaration released by Avenatti, Swetnick said she attended a public high school near Georgetown Prep, where Kavanaugh was a student. (Avenatti said she graduated in 1980.) She said she met Kavanaugh and Judge at a house party in the area in approximately 1980-81.
Swetnick said that she attended more than 10 parties with Kavanaugh and Judge between 1981 and 1983."I witnessed Brett Kavanaugh consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women during the early 1980s," she said.
She added that they “engaged in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking “no” for an answer. This conduct included the fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent."
From my view, just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it just did.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 26, 2018
The lawyer to porn stars has just taken this debacle to an even lower level.
I hope people will be highly suspicious of this allegation presented by Michael Avenatti.
I have a difficult time believing any person would continue to go to – according to the affidavit – ten parties over a two-year period where women were routinely gang raped and not report it.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 26, 2018
Why would any reasonable person continue to hang around people like this?
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 26, 2018
Why would any person continue to put their friends and themselves in danger?
Isn’t there some duty to warn others?
I very much believe in allowing people to be heard.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 26, 2018
But I am not going to be played, and I’m not going to have my intelligence insulted by the Michael Avenattis of the world.
I will not be a participant in wholesale character assassination that defies credibility.
Okay—so, do we have any witnesses? Uh, apparently we do not. Like the two other allegations hurled at Kavanaugh, there's no further evidence to corroborate that Kavanaugh was a master ring leader in this alleged debauchery. Should we be shocked? Probably not, what else would you expect from a grandstanding, opportunistic porn lawyer? Also, she kept going to these parties where rape was occurring? Yes, it’s all suspect.
BREAKING: Congressional sources say new Kavanaugh accuser Swetnick can offer no eyewitness or other evidence to show the SCOTUS nominee participated in any alleged "gang rape" or forced himself on girls, and that she only personally witnessed him drinking "excessively" at parties
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) September 26, 2018
IF this is true, this allegation cannot be treated as remotely serious. https://t.co/mjDOozxikl
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 26, 2018
Avenatti has done such a disservice to the #MeToo movement. We have gone from some initial strong cases (ie, Weinstein), to absolutely wild claims that a woman witnessed boys spiking drinks and lining up to "gang rape," and not only didn't report it, but kept going back. Absurd.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 26, 2018
Sen. Lindsey Graham isn’t having any of it, calling the allegation peddled by Avenatti and co. “highly suspicious.”
“I have a difficult time believing any person would continue to go to – according to the affidavit – ten parties over a two-year period where women were routinely gang raped and not report it,” said Graham.
To review the Avenatti claim: a woman claims that when she was a college aged adult (graduated high school in 1980), she went to high school parties where high school girls were drugged and raped and she, as the adult present, did nothing but avoid the punch.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 26, 2018
So to summarize claims:
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 26, 2018
Swetnick graduated High School in 1980.
In 1982, as a college student, she was attending high-school parties where druggings & gang rapes occurred with regularity.
She went back to those parties 10 times.
She is just now reporting this, 37 years later.
Ok
“I very much believe in allowing people to be heard. But I am not going to be played, and I’m not going to have my intelligence insulted by the Michael Avenattis of the world. I will not be a participant in wholesale character assassination that defies credibility,” added the South Carolina Republican. And he’s not the only one who finds this story as being totally ridiculous. The delay Olympics are just beginning, folks. The question is whether the GOP will hold the line. They have to. To allow these unsubstantiated allegations derived from what is increasingly looking like a political hit job take down an eminently qualified judge that some in Congress don’t like, is an unforgivable surrender. It cannot happen, and Republican voters will punish their party if they allow this weaponized gossip derail this nomination. Graham knows this as well saying, “If Republicans bail out on this good man because of the smears and character assassination perpetrated by Michael Avenatti, we deserve our fate.”
We’re at war, Republicans. Act like it.
Sen. Lindsey Graham in a new statement: "If Republicans bail out on this good man because of the smears and character assassination perpetrated by Michael Avenatti, we deserve our fate.”
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 26, 2018