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Dumpster Fire: NBC Reporter Thinks This Explanation Will Resolve Why They Sat On Account That Gutted Kavanaugh Accuser's Claim

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 29, 2018 12:50 PM

NBC News is taking some flak after it appears it sat on an account that torpedoes the sexual misconduct allegations lobbed by Julie Swetnick. She alleges that Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee who endured a brutal confirmation battle, was involved in a gang rape ring in high school. 

Swetnick is one of five accusers, all of which have zero evidence or witnesses to corroborate their stories. Swetnick’s story is the most shoddy. As a college-aged woman, she hung out with high school kids, saw this alleged debauchery, and didn’t tell anyone about it, not even a warning. Oh, and she went back to at least several more of these parties where these supposed gang rapes were happening. It’s just unbelievable. 

Well, in September, NBC apparently knew Swetnick’s allegations were straight trash, but decided to sit on them—but went ahead and published the unverified gang rape claim. Now, that Kavanaugh has been confirmed and Swetnick, along with her attorney, Michael Avenatti, have been referred for criminal prosecution for submitting false statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee, NBC News is finally coming clean. It related to the second woman Avenatti claimed corroborated Swetnick’s tale. It turned out that wasn’t the case.

In the NBC News interview that aired on Oct. 1, Swetnick back-tracked on or contradicted parts of her sworn statement where she alleged she witnessed then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh "cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be 'gang raped' in a side room or bedroom by a 'train' of boys."

NBC News also found other apparent inconsistencies in a second sworn statement from another woman whose statement Avenatti provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a bid to bolster Swetnick's claims.

In the second statement, the unidentified woman said she witnessed Kavanaugh "spike" the punch at high school parties in order to sexually take advantage of girls. But less than 48 hours before Avenatti released her sworn statement on Twitter, the same woman told NBC News a different story.

Referring to Kavanaugh spiking the punch, "I didn't ever think it was Brett," the woman said to reporters in a phone interview arranged by Avenatti on Sept. 30after repeated requests to speak with other witnesses who might corroborate Swetnick's claims. As soon as the call began, the woman said she never met Swetnick in high school and never saw her at parties and had only become friends with her when they were both in their 30s.

When asked in the phone interview if she ever witnessed Kavanaugh act inappropriately towards girls, the woman replied, "no." She did describe a culture of heavy drinking in high school that she took part in, and said Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were part of that group.

[…]

According to the second woman's declaration that Avenatti provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she said: "During the years 1981-82, I witnessed firsthand Brett Kavanaugh, together with others, 'spike' the 'punch' at house parties I attended with Quaaludes and/or grain alcohol. I understood this was being done for the purpose of making girls more likely to engage in sexual acts and less likely to say 'No.'"

The statement also said that Kavanaugh was "overly aggressive and verbally abusive to girls. This conduct included inappropriate physical contact with girls of a sexual nature."

But reached by phone independently from Avenatti on Oct. 3, the woman said she only "skimmed" the declaration. After reviewing the statement, she wrote in a text on Oct. 4 to NBC News: "It is incorrect that I saw Brett spike the punch. I didn't see anyone spike the punch...I was very clear with Michael Avenatti from day one."

When pressed about abusive behavior towards girls, she wrote in a text: "I would not ever allow anyone to be abusive in my presence. Male or female."

Kate Snow and Anna Schecter wrote the NBC News piece. Snow took to Twitter to explain why they decided to publish the article, which seems to be another footnote in the annals of liberal media bias. Our friends at Twitchy caught it. In all, Snow says that they ran out of time—but went ahead with Swetnick’s loony tale anyway, while saying that it was unverifiable. Yeah, maybe that’s where the red flags should have gone up. The New York Times didn’t do an original story on Swetnick precisely because they couldn’t confirm anything. The Times also didn’t run one on Deborah Ramirez, the second Kavanaugh accuser, who says he exposed himself at a college party. All the allegations against Kavanaugh were baseless, unsubstantiated gossip, dropped at the last minute and weaponized by Democrats to try and take down this nomination. They failed.

And this, “oh, gee-golly we ran out of time” explanation just doesn’t cut it. Even former CNN bureau chief Frank Sesno said that while he would have run the Christine Blasey Ford allegation, the first one to be hurled at Kavanaugh, he would not have gone ahead with the others. The network employed him during the Monica Lewinsky affair, and his number one job was to ensure hearsay didn't make it on the airwaves. Oh, how the times have changed.

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Now, Snow did say that Avenatti refused to give the full legal name and contact information of the woman who blew up Swetnick’s allegation. I believe it. Look what they finally discovered—that Swetnick was full of crap. But maybe when Avenatti kept running interference, it should have been another moment where NBC should have had reservations about this whole gang rape story in the first place.