Senate Investigators Find Evidence Ford May Have Mistaken Kavanaugh for Another Man
A report released by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Saturday included the account of a man who said he had a consensual encounter with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in the early 1980s, which mirrored in multiple respects the allegation of sexual misconduct she brought against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The report overall found no credible evidence of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh.
During his public testimony regarding allegations made by Ford in late September, Kavanaugh emphatically denied he had ever sexually assaulted her and insisted she must be mistaking him for another man.
Brett Kavanaugh: "I'm not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in someplace at some time, but I have never done this to her or to anyone. That's not who I am. It is not who I was. I am innocent of this charge." https://t.co/Dzu2JyOIWV pic.twitter.com/1CgfFCWCwf
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) September 27, 2018
According to the report, committee investigators interviewed a man — whose name was redacted — the day before Ford testified. This man related that when he was a 19-year-old college student he visited Washington, D.C., over spring break and kissed a girl he thought was Ford.
The reports reads: “He said that the kiss happened in the bedroom of a house which was about a 15-to-20 minute walk from the Van Ness Metro, that Dr. Ford was wearing a swimsuit under her clothing, and that the kissing ended when a friend jumped on them as a joke. (The man) said that the woman initiated the kissing and that he did not force himself on her.”
Breitbart noted his account is similar to the testimony Ford offered before the Senate Judiciary Committee in at least three ways.
First, the man said the encounter took place in a bedroom of a house near the Van Ness Metro station, which is at the border of Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, where Ford said the alleged incident with Kavanaugh happened.
The man also said Ford was wearing a bathing suit under her clothing, and their kissing ended when a second man jumped on the bed.
Committee investigators spoke with a second man, who said that he attended a house party in the summer of 1982, where he “kissed and made out with a woman he met who he believes could have been Dr. Ford. (The man) said that based on old photographs of Justice Kavanaugh he has seen on the news, he believes the two of them share a similar appearance.”
Investigators also looked into allegations made by a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a college party at Yale and “thrust his penis in her face and caused her to touch it.”
“Almost immediately after its publication, the New York Times posted a story that said its staff had interviewed several dozen people but could find no one to corroborate Ramirez’s account or anyone with firsthand knowledge of the alleged event,” according to the committee report.
“The Times also reported that Ramirez, in an effort to refresh her recollection, ‘contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the episode and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself.'”
Once again, Kavanaugh emphatically denied Ramirez’s claim saying, “That did not happen.”
The committee tried to follow up with Ramirez, who, through her attorneys, refused seven requests by investigators for further information.
She also declined to provide a written statement of her account directly to the committee, which would carry potential legal penalties for knowingly providing false information.
Though Ramirez refused to cooperate, the committee interviewed several of Kavanaugh’s college classmates in an attempt to substantiate her claim.
One of them, whose name is redacted, recalled that a different classmate, who was a member of the same fraternity as Kavanaugh, had a reputation for exposing himself. The person said he had witnessed this man expose himself at a party and if Kavanaugh had “engaged in similar lewd behavior, it would have been widely known on campus.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said his committee “left no stone unturned in our pursuit of the facts” regarding allegations against Kavanaugh.
The senator stated, “In the end, there was no credible evidence to support the allegations against the nominee.”
In recent weeks, Grassley has referred at least three people to the Justice Department concerning apparently false statements they provided to the committee regarding Kavanaugh.
Late last month, the senator called for the DOJ to criminally investigate attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick for “potential conspiracy to provide materially false statements to Congress.”
Swetnick claimed Kavanaugh was present at parties when there were gang rapes and that he was involved in spiking punch to make women more susceptible to sexual advances.
But in an October 1 interview with NBC News, “Swetnick specifically and explicitly back-tracked or contradicted key parts of her sworn statement on these and other allegations,” the Judiciary Committee noted in a news release.
Additionally, on Friday, Grassley referred Judy Munro-Leighton for investigation into potential violations of providing materially false statements and obstruction of the committee’s work regarding Kavanaugh.
Munro-Leighton claimed in an email to the committee three days before his confirmation vote that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted and raped her.
Committee investigators then looked into Munro-Leighton’s background and learned she is a “left-wing activist,” who is decades older than Judge Kavanaugh and lived in “neither the Washington DC area nor California, but in Kentucky.”
Under questioning by the committee, Munro-Leighton admitted she “just wanted to get attention,” and her actions were a “tactic” and a “ploy” because she opposed Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
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