A Yale Law School professor is rejecting a report that said she privately advised female law students on how to dress and act “model-like” when seeking a clerkship with Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
“He hires only the most qualified clerks, and they have been diverse as well as exceptionally talented and capable,” Amy Chua said in a statement Thursday, Fox News reported. “There is good reason so many of them have gone on to Supreme Court clerkships; he only hires those who are extraordinarily qualified.”
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A report emerged Thursday that Chua told students it was “no accident” that all of Kavanaugh’s female clerks “looked like models.” The anonymous sources said she gave women fashion advice before interviewing with Kavanaugh.
When President Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court this summer, Chua endorsed him in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Chua said Kavanaugh was a “mentor to women” and expressed how proud she is that her own daughter would be conducting her clerkship in Kavanaugh’s chambers.
“As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal, he has also been an exceptional mentor to his female clerks and a champion of their careers,” Chua said in her statement. “Among my proudest moments as a parent was the day I learned our daughter would join those ranks.”
Porter Wilkinson, who clerked for Kavanaugh from 2007 to 2008, said the claims were “offensive.”
“Judge Kavanaugh hires law clerks based solely on their intellect and qualifications,” Wilkinson told Fox News. “It is offensive and demeaning for anyone to suggest that Judge Kavanaugh hired law clerks based on anything other than merit.”
She added that the only thing the 48 people who clerk for Kavanaugh over the years have in common is their hard work and ability to meet his “rigorous substantive standards.”
Kavanaugh is currently under fire after a woman from his high school years accused him of drunkenly groping her at a party 36 years ago.
Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old professor in northern California, went public with the allegations shortly before the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote on moving forward with Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Ford had shared her story with lawmakers and media earlier in the summer when it become clear that Trump was going to nominate Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh denies the allegations and two friends, who were identified as being in the room at the time of the alleged sexual assault, say they have no recollection of the party Ford is referencing and deny an knowledge of the incident she detailed.
