Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing Brett Kavanaugh’s third accuser, said Sunday “many” witnesses could substantiate his client’s sexual misconduct allegations against the Supreme Court nominee.
“I’ve been clear for the last week that there are corroborating witnesses,” Avenatti said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Kasie DC.” “We just didn’t make this up out of whole cloth. I didn’t just reach into the ether and find some woman to sign a false declaration.”
Julie Swetnick, Avenatti’s client, accused Kavanaugh in a sworn declaration last Wednesday of behaving inappropriately toward women as a teenager, including spiking their drinks and touching them without their consent. She claims Kavanaugh and his friends attended parties in the 1980s where girls, including herself, were gang raped. She does not allege Kavanaugh himself committed the alleged rape.
Swetnick is yet to be approached by the FBI as it conducts a supplemental background investigation into the accusations leveled at Kavanaugh. The bureau has to complete its probe within the week before the Senate is tentatively expected to push forward with the judge’s confirmation process to the country’s highest court.
“How difficult is it for a couple of FBI agents, or even one, to call me on the phone and ask to speak to my client for an hour or two? That’s not a lot of resources,” Avenatti added Sunday. “They don’t want to talk to my client because they’re afraid of what she may say.”
The controversial attorney, who is considering mounting a 2020 Democratic presidential bid, denied Swetnick would be better represented by someone who is less overtly political.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I do a phenomenal job for my clients and I’ve done a phenomenal job for the last 18 years.”
