Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman, Christine Blasey Ford, when they were both in high school in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations repeatedly, saying in no uncertain terms that he did no such thing.
The accusations have prompted the normal reactions this week from political partisans, including the usual airing of misleading, disingenuous, and outright false attacks and defenses.
But perhaps the strangest response to Ford’s claims includes the dredging up of a 1996 court case adjudicated in the Montgomery County Circuit Court. The case involved Ford’s parents, Ralph and Paula Blasey, and Kavanaugh’s mother, Martha, who served at the time as a judge on that court.
Maryland records (Case No. 156006V in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County) show the Blaseys fought in court for several years to save their home from foreclosure. And a judge briefly involved in the case was none other than Martha Kavanaugh.
For some on the Right, the documents are proof that Christine Blasey Ford has an axe to grind with Brett Kavanaugh.
“Bad Blood: Judge Kavanaugh’s Mother Foreclosed on Far Left Accuser’s Parents’ Home,” reads a headline published by Jim Hoft, the most consistently wrong man on the Internet.
A website called Pacific Pundit published a headline reading, “CHRISTINE BLASEY-FORD MOTIVE: REVENGE – KAVANAUGH’S MOTHER JUDGE AGAINST PARENTS IN FORECLOSURE CASE 1996.”
A separate headline published by the Powerline blog reads, “KAVANAUGH’S MOTHER RULED AGAINST ACCUSER’S PARENTS.”
The opening paragraph reads, “It looks like Brett Kavanaugh’s mother, Judge Martha Kavanaugh, ruled against the parents of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Court documents show the losing party in a foreclosure case Martha Kavanaugh heard to be Ralph and Paula Blasey of Potomac, Maryland. They appear to be Christine Blasey Ford’s parents. … There now seems to be a motive, beyond partisan politics, for Ford to make up or significantly embellish her story so long after the ‘fact.’”
The story concludes with these lines, “It seems more likely that Ms. Ford has invented or substantially embellished this story — out of political bias, animus towards the family because of the court case, or both.”
The problem with these supposed “Ah-ha!” defenses of Kavanaugh is that they rely on a misreading of the actual court documents.
A review of the filings shows that Judge Kavanaugh signed an order in 1997 dismissing the foreclosure after the Blaseys refinanced their home. The 10th docket reads, “ORDER OF COURT (KAVANAUGH, J./RICE, M.) THAT THE VOLUNTARY MOTION TO DISMISS IS HEREBY GRANTED WITH PREJUDICE AND THAT THE BOND FILED BY HARRY J. KELLY AS TRUSTEE SHALL BE RELEASED AND RETURNED FILED.”
The records show Martha Kavanaugh was one of several judges involved in the case. The records show she made no ruling pertaining to a seizure of the Blasleys’ home. The records also show that her involvement in the case was minimal. Basically, she dismissed it, and that’s it.
She even dismissed the foreclosure “with prejudice,” meaning that, on the merits, the case was over and could not be refiled on the same grounds. Also, in case you were wondering, the Blaseys still retain ownership of the home, according to the most current data available from the state of Maryland’s Department of Assessment and Taxation. So, no, it does not appear that they lost their home.
The Internet is a silly place. Don’t be a sucker.
