A former classmate of the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault is backtracking on her own statement in which she definitely said Kavanaugh was involved in the alleged incident.
“That it happened or not, I have no idea,” Cristina King Miranda told NPR in a report published Thursday. “I can’t say that it did or didn’t.”
Recommended Stories
Her words to NPR differ from a widely shared, but now-deleted Facebook post Miranda wrote earlier in the week.
“The incident did happen. Many of us heard about it in school and Christine’s recollection should be more than enough for us to truly, deeply know that the accusation is true,” Miranda said in her post.
[Also read: Female Senate Democrats tell male GOP colleagues to ‘shut up’ and ‘do the right thing’]
This is the letter, posted on Facebook, from a woman who knew Kavanaugh, Judge and Blasey Ford and claims that the attack did happen, that “many of us heard about it in school,” and that it was talked about for days afterward.
The FBI should interview her and others. pic.twitter.com/OZmEGP1Q1G— Jay Bookman (@jaybookmanajc) September 19, 2018
Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old professor in northern California, alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party 36 years ago.
Kavanaugh denies the allegations and two people identified as being in the room at the time of the assault deny that the incident ever happened and also say they are not aware of the party Ford is referencing.
“In my [Facebook] post, I was empowered and I was sure it probably did [happen],” Miranda told NPR. “I had no idea that I would now have to go to the specifics and defend it before 50 cable channels and have my face spread all over MSNBC news and Twitter.”
When Ford made her story public, she claims she did not talk to anyone about the incident until 2012. Ford says that is when she informed her husband about it in couples therapy.
Miranda wrote on Twitter, but has since appeared to have deleted her account, that she does not have “first hand knowledge” of the allegations.
“To all media, I will not be doing anymore interviews. No more circus. To clarify my post: I do not have first hand knowledge of the incident that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford mentions, and I stand by my support for Christine. That’s it. I don’t have more to say on the subject,” Miranda posted to Twitter, according to NPR.
Ford said she would be willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but later her lawyers said she would not testify until the FBI fully investigated the allegation. Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has given Ford until Friday morning to respond to the committee’s invitation for her the testify on Monday.
