Sen. Kamala Harris, a contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, called for an investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But the letter she sent to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler muddled basic facts and left out key information.
Harris suggested the creation of a special anti-Kavanaugh House task force and called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment based upon a hotly disputed weekend essay in the New York Times by reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly previewing their book, The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.
One line from Harris’ Tuesday letter incorrectly states that “it was also reported that one of Ms. Ramirez’s former classmates alleged that he saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into Ms. Ramirez’s hand.” The newly reported claim in the book does indeed come from a Yale classmate, but it relates to a different woman, allegedly a friend of Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez’s.
Kavanaugh faced two main allegations during his Supreme Court confirmation process. California professor Christine Blasey Ford claimed Kavanaugh and a classmate of his attempted to sexually assault her at a home in suburban Maryland in high school. Kavanaugh denies the incident occurred, and the attendees of the the party named by Ford deny any recollection of the event, including Ford’s friend Leland Keyser, who says she doubts the incident ever happened. Martinez alleged Kavanaugh put his penis in her face at a freshman year party at Yale, causing her to inadvertently touch it as she swatted it away. Kavanaugh denies that too, and none of the alleged witnesses to the event named by Ramirez support her claim.
The new claim about Kavanaugh comes from Clinton impeachment defense lawyer and former GOP aide Max Stier.
“We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaugh in his freshman year that echoes Ms. Ramirez’s allegation,” Pogrebin and Kelly wrote on Sunday. “A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student.”
That article led to almost immediate calls for impeachment from Harris and other other Democratic presidential candidates. But the New York Times, under pressure online from conservatives, was forced to add an editor’s note Sunday evening stating “the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident.”
The passage from the book states that Stier “had seen a drunk Kavanaugh with his pants down at another freshman-year party where his friends brought Ramirez’s drunk friend Tracy Harmon over and put Kavanaugh’s penis in her hand.” Harris’ letter describes this allegation as Kavanaugh acting inappropriately toward Ramirez, rather than as a separate, uncorroborated allegation. Harris’ letter also omitted that the alleged victim does not appear to remember this event.
“Harmon, whose surname is now Harmon Joyce, has also refused to discuss the incident, though several of her friends said she does not recall it,” Pogrebin and Kelly said in the book.
Harris’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment when the Washington Examiner reached out about the letter.
When confronted earlier this week about the new alleged victim not remembering the incident, Harris persisted.
“Well, I would say that the fact that someone doesn’t remember the details of the incident doesn’t mean there’s lack of evidence if there are other witnesses who can establish that the fact occurred,” Harris told NPR on Monday. “And so I wouldn’t say there’s no evidence. And I must say, it’s very normal for someone, especially someone who has been subject to this kind of behavior, to not be clear on the details. That’s not abnormal.”
