The New York Times on Saturday published an opinion piece from reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, who claim to have details about a new accuser and sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The piece was an excerpt from their upcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.”
We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaugh in his freshman year that echoes Ms. [Deborah] Ramirez’s allegation. A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly. (We corroborated the story with two officials who have communicated with Mr. Stier.)
According to the Huffington Post, Pogrebin and Kelly "looked into both Ramirez’s and Ford’s claims for their upcoming book, which takes a deeper look into Kavanaugh’s prep school and Ivy League days in an attempt to piece together who he is."
The Times promoted the piece with a tasteless tweet, which was eventually deleted.
What are they thinking at the New York Times? 1) It's a discredited allegation. 2) If it had happened, such things are 'harmless fun'? pic.twitter.com/zBUmj0Ghqq
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 15, 2019
Deborah Ramirez's allegations against Kavanaugh came out during his confirmation process last fall. She claimed he exposed himself during a party in a dorm room in 1983 but was reluctant to come forward because she had been drinking and her memory was foggy.
It's important to remember one important tidbit from a previous Times piece: they couldn't find any corroborating evidence:
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.