Tipsheet

Things Fall Apart: NYT Delivers Another Kill Shot To Kavanaugh Sexual Misconduct Fiasco

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 27, 2018 8:15 AM

Today is going to be frenetic. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who first came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, is set to testify and answer questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She alleges that a then-drunken 17-year-old Kavanagh tried to sexually assault her at a high school party. Then, Deborah Ramirez alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself at a college party at Yale. And now, we have Julie Swetnick alleging the most absurd of all: Kavanaugh was part of a gang-rape ring in high school.

Via NBC News:

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."

Well, a few things, this woman supposedly witnesses terrible sex crimes at these parties…and continued to attend future gatherings, allegedly, and never told anyone, never warned anyone. The BS factor is off the charts on this one. The lawyer representing Swetnick, porn lawyer Michael Avenatti, can’t remember when he first heard of his client’s allegation. Also, there’s no evidence, no witnesses, and once again The New York Times couldn’t corroborate anything from this account. Can they do it? Doubtful; Avenatti isn’t making her available for an interview:

None of Ms. Swetnick’s claims could be independently corroborated by The New York Times, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, declined to make her available for an interview.

Does this sound familiar? Yes, The Times came to the same conclusion about the Ramirez allegation [emphasis mine]:

In a statement, Judge Kavanaugh denied the allegation from the woman, Deborah Ramirez, and called it “a smear, plain and simple.” The New Yorker did not confirm with other eyewitnesses that Judge Kavanaugh was at the party.

The Times had interviewed several dozen people over the past week in an attempt to corroborate her story, and could find no one with firsthand knowledge. Ms. Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the incident and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself.

With Ford, she has no witnesses in her claim either. No evidence. Reports say she wanted to remain anonymous, but she retained the services of an anti-Trump lawyer, and a former FBI agent gave her a polygraph. All of this points to a woman who wanted to come forward. And given how her allegation was dropped, at the very last minute, this all reeks of a political hit job. Oh, and remember how The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel noted something odd about The Washington Post’s initial report on Ford about who was there? Well, the results of the polygraph were released and, uh…there are problems. What we need is the therapist’s notes. The Washington Post, turn them over. 

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So, bravo, New York Times—take a bow for not stepping on a rake and doing some good work, showing that these allegations are so thin, you can’t really do deep-dives of your own into these claims. Nice, kill shot.

Make sure to check out our live coverage of the Kavanaugh hearing on our new live blog.