As the FBI conducts its investigation, here is a status update on allegations that have been leveled at Judge Kavanaugh. That they have not held up should be no surprise, given that they only surfaced at the eleventh hour against a nominee who had faced extensive background checks over 25 years with never a whisper of such misconduct:
| Source | Allegations | Problems with the allegations |
| Dr. Christine Blasey Ford | In 1982, Kavanaugh pushed her into a room with Mark Judge, groped her and attempted to remove her clothes, put his hand over her mouth. | As detailed in my previous posts here and here, as well as the analysis of Senate Judiciary Committee counsel Rachel Mitchell, this account contains numerous holes and inconsistencies and is either not corroborated by or is contradicted by every alleged witness. |
| Deborah Ramirez | During the 1983-1984 school year, someone exposed himself to her while she was inebriated, after which she saw Kavanaugh with “his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” | Ramirez admits she was inebriated and that she did not see Kavanaugh expose himself, but inferred it. Significantly, as she called multiple former classmates about the incident, she admitted herself that she was not sure it was Kavanaugh. Ramirez became “certain” only after working with a partisan activist lawyer for six days.
Neither she nor the New York Times, which interviewed several dozen people in search of a witness with firsthand knowledge of the allegation, could find anyone to corroborate. Ramirez’s attorneys refused seven requests from the Senate Judiciary Committee for cooperation in the form of evidence or agreeing to an interview. |
| Julie Swetnick | Kavanaugh systematically facilitated gang rapes by spiking punch and waited his turn in lines to participate in such rapes. | This is a widely discredited source with a history of dishonest and abusive behavior. Among other things, she was accused of lying about her background to her employer and was sued for defamation for making false and retaliatory claims of sexually offensive conduct in a lawsuit that also alleged similar conduct by her. Her ex-boyfriend, who called her “not credible at all,” had filed a restraining order against her and asserted that she threatened to harm his family.
She provided no dates, times, locations, or evidence to support her claims. The few specific details she provided were already publicly available. |
| Jeffrey Catalan on behalf of an anonymous woman | In August 1985, an acquaintance of the accuser was raped by Kavanaugh and a man named Mark on a boat in the harbor at Newport, Rhode Island. The accuser and another man “physically confronted” both men after learning of the incident. | On September 24, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse simultaneously gave the accuser a reporter’s contact information and forwarded his allegations to the FBI, after which he forwarded them to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Two days later, the accuser “recanted because I have made a mistake and apologize for such mistake.” The Judiciary Committee made a criminal referral of this matter to the Justice Department for the false statements alleging misconduct by Kavanaugh. |
| Anonymous in Colorado | In 1998, Kavanaugh shoved his girlfriend against a wall “very sexually and aggressively,” according to a woman claiming to be the mother of a friend of his girlfriend. | Kavanaugh’s girlfriend at the time, Judge Dabney Friedrich, denied the allegation as “offensive and absurd.” Besides never shoving her against a wall, she asserted she has “never observed (nor [is she] aware of) Brett acting in a physically inappropriate or aggressive manner toward anyone.” |
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