The Kavanaugh Accusations

Let’s see… the charges against Brett Kavanaugh are accumulating. Either he has sexually assaulted and harassed multiple women… facts which the FBI failed to uncover in numerous background investigations… or some people are either misremembering or making things up.

Today, we learn that two men have presented themselves to the Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining that they, not Kavanaugh, assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in 1982.

Powerline has the story, as put out by the Judiciary Committee:

September 24: Committee staff have first interview with a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982 that is the basis of his complaint. He submitted a written statement earlier in the day.

September 25: Committee staff have a second interview with a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in the summer of 1982 that is the basis of her allegation. He described his recollection of their interaction in some detail.

September 26: Committee staff receives a more in-depth written statement from the man interviewed twice previously who believes he, not Judge Kavanuagh, had the encounter in question with Dr. Ford.

***

Committee investigative staff spoke via phone with another man who believes he, not Judge Kavanuagh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982 that is the basis of her allegation. He explained his recollection of the details of the encounter.

We await further developments.

As for Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her while a Yale freshman, the New York Times did not find her story worth printing. Her memory was too sketchy and none of her classmates could corroborate the story.

And then there is Julie Swetnick, represented by one Michael Avenatti, whose claims yesterday, in an affidavit, were the most salacious and most spectacular. For the record, Alan Dershowitz said that the Swetnick affidavit was one of the worst, the most incompetent, the most imprecise that he had ever seen. Filled with suggestions and with innuendo, it will never withstand scrutiny.

Nor, apparently, will Swetnick’s claims, reported in the New York Post:

In her declaration, Swetnick claims to have attended “well over ten house parties” in the Washington area, at which Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were also present. What she doesn’t mention is how she wound up at those parties, which took place when she had graduated high school while Kavanaugh was still in high school.

Unlike his first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, Swetnick didn’t attend a sister school of Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep high school. And unlike his second accuser, she wasn’t an undergraduate classmate of his at Yale. On the available evidence, it is a mystery how she mingled in the same circles that he occupied. Kavanaugh says he’s never heard of her.

Swetnick says she saw Kavanaugh and Judge drink to excess at these parties and behave crudely toward young women. What she doesn’t mention? The names of any of the women in question. At least Ford named potential witnesses, all of whom said they don’t recall the parties and events in question. Not so Swetnick, whose declaration appears designed to frustrate attempts at corroboration.

Next, Swetnick accuses Kavanaugh of “grinding women” and “shifting girls’ clothing” and “making crude sexual comments.” But again, she doesn’t identify these alleged victims. Was she one of them? She doesn’t say, and Avenatti likewise demurred when pressed by a co-host on ABC’s “The View” as to whether Swetnick herself was victimized — in any way — by Kavanaugh.

Swetnick also claims that she witnessed “this conduct” on at least one other occasion, “during the Summer months in Ocean City, Maryland” and was told that other women in Ocean City witnessed the same. But what “conduct”? By whom? What year? Swetnick doesn’t say.

Then Swetnick writes: “During the years 1981-82” — that is, while she was of majority age and the judge still in high school — “I became aware of efforts by . . . Brett Kavanaugh and others to ‘spike’ the ‘punch’ at house parties I attended with drugs.” Note that she doesn’t claim to have witnessed or seen Kavanaugh drug the booze — only that she “became aware,” somehow.

In the same vein: “I witnessed efforts by . . . Brett Kavanaugh and others to ‘target’ particular girls so they could be taken advantage of.” Which girls and targeted for what purpose, Swetnick doesn’t say.

Then we get to the “train”-rape stuff. To wit, Swetnick alleges that Kavanaugh was “waiting outside a room” where a gang rape supposedly took place, where boys had presumably lined up to take advantage of a young woman. But she doesn’t say that she witnessed the gang rape or that she witnessed the future judge engage in the gang rape. And once more, she doesn’t list any alleged victims.

Finally, Swetnick claims that “in approximately 1982,” she became a victim of these gang rapes. Forgive me for sounding like a broken record, but again: She doesn’t allege that Kavanaugh was one of her group rapists or even that he was aware that she was being raped — only that he was “present.”

So, the college age Swetnick was hanging around with high school students at parties where girls were routinely gang raped. And she kept coming back until she herself was subjected to the gang rape. She offers no details and no corraboration. Worse yet, she cannot explain how it happened that so many people were involved in so much criminal activity… and yet, no one ever said anything to anyone. These high school students outdid the mob in Omerta.

Of course, it makes no sense. And yet, in the matter of destroying a reputation and smearing a  man, it did have an effect. Because, didn’t you know, we must always believe the accuser in these cases.