WASHINGTON, DC — Federal appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh repeatedly — and emphatically — denied sexual misconduct allegations at a Senate panel hearing Thursday, with the U.S. Supreme Court nominee going so far as to call one accuser’s allegations “a joke” and “a farce.” Now, GOP lawmakers say the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to vote Friday morning on his nomination.
Kavanaugh visibly recoiled Thursday afternoon when Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein questioned the judge about whether the misconduct allegations against him by Julie Swetnick, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez were false.
“That is emphatically what I’m saying,” he replied. “Emphatically. The Swetnick thing is a joke. That is a farce.” When asked if he’d like to further comment on the matter, Kavanaugh simply replied, “no,” and leaned back in his chair.
Swetnick on Wednesday said she saw Kavanaugh regularly binge drink and have inappropriate sexual contact with women during the early 1980s. She said Kavanaugh and his friends also spiked girls’ drinks with powerful drugs such as Quaaludes. The girls were later gang raped by boys lining up to take their turn, she alleged.
Swetnick said in a sworn statement that she saw Kavanaugh “consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.” Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, who also represents adult film star Stormy Daniels, provided her sworn declaration to the Judiciary Committee.
Kavanaugh began testifying Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about an hour after Christine Ford — who accused him of trying to rape her in the 1980s — finished her emotional testimony. The California psychology professor recounted her experience, saying she’s certain Kavanaugh attacked her in a locked room in the 1980s and that the assault “drastically altered” her life.
Kavanaugh forcefully denied the sexual misconduct allegation and said his name has been “totally and permanently destroyed” by what he called “vicious and false additional accusations.” He pleaded with Americans to listen to other witnesses who knew him growing up and said the confirmation process had become a “national disgrace.”
“The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy,” he told the lawmakers, adding that Democrats have been plotting against him since he was first nominated by President Donald Trump in July.
“There has been a frenzy from the left to come up with something — anything — to block my confirmation,” he said.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when he was a 17-year-old Georgetown Prep student. She was 15 at the time. She testified that on one summer night in 1982, Kavanaugh drunkenly forced her down on a bed, groped her and tried to take off her clothes. She said he covered her mouth when she tried to scream before she was able to escape.
“I believed he was going to rape me,” a visibly upset Ford told the Senate panel. “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter of the two,” she said about Kavanaugh and a friend he was allegedly with at the time.
“Brett’s assault on me drastically altered my life,” she said, according to The New York Times.
Blasey testified that she has been the subject of death threats and slurs that “rocked” her to her core and told lawmakers there’s no way she could be mistaken about who attacked her. When asked how certain she was Kavanaugh assaulted her, Blasey didn’t flinch: “100 percent,” she said.
This is the first time America has seen and heard from Ford, 51, since she first came forward with the allegations nearly two weeks ago. Ford said she’s testifying because she feels it’s her duty. She said she’s “terrified” and has received harassing messages and even death threats.
“It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court,” Ford said. “My responsibility is to tell the truth.”
Several women have lodged decades-old sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh, threatening to derail his once rock-solid U.S. Supreme Court nomination. Kavanaugh is Trump’s pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy. He has vehemently denied any and all accusations of sexual misconduct and his answers could ultimately determine whether Senate Republicans will salvage his nomination and ensure the high court retains its conservative bent.
A third woman, Deborah Ramirez, says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they attended Yale University.
Transcripts of private interviews with committee investigators were released late Wednesday that show Kavanaugh was also asked about two more accusations, including an anonymous letter detailing an incident at a bar in 1998. At that time, Kavanaugh was working for the independent counsel investigating then-President Bill Clinton.
Trump tweeted out a show of support for the judge Thursday evening, saying Kavanaugh’s performance was “exactly why” the president picked him.
“Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him,” tweeted Trump. “His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!”
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