Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh defended himself Sunday evening against a second allegation of sexual misconduct, condemning a report that said he exposed himself to a woman as an undergraduate at Yale University.
“This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen,” Kavanaugh wrote in a statement released to the press. “The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so.”
“This is a smear, plain and simple,” he continued. “I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these last-minute allegations.”
[Trump: Kavanaugh ‘is not a man that deserves this’]
Deborah Ramirez, a fellow Yale alum, told the New Yorker in an article published Sunday that Kavanaugh pulled down his pants at a college party during the 1983-84 academic school year. The then-freshman flashed his penis close to Ramirez’s face, leading her to touch it without her consent as she tried to push him away.
Ramirez told the outlet she had been reticent to share her story because she had been drinking at the time of the incident. But now she wants an FBI investigation into the matter.
At least two Democratic senators have begun probing Ramirez’s claims after four senators were informed of them, the New Yorker also reported.
The Trump administration on Sunday stood “firmly behind” its second Supreme Court nominee, despite the new accusation.
“This 35-year-old, uncorroborated claim is the latest in a coordinated smear campaign by the Democrats designed to tear down a good man,” White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec wrote. “This claim is denied by all who were said to be present and is wholly inconsistent with what many women and men who knew Judge Kavanaugh at the time in college say.”
Kavanaugh is due to address an allegation by Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday that he drunkenly forced himself onto her during a 1980s house party in Maryland when he was an upperclassman at Georgetown Prep. Kavanaugh has denied Ford’s accusation.
