Senate Republicans on Friday moved to avoid “Clarence Thomas redux” after news leaked out that an unnamed woman had accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault while the two were in high school in the 1980s.
[New: Woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct comes forward]
Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings concluded last week, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, scheduled a Sept. 20 vote to send his nomination to the Senate floor. Republicans quickly announced that in spite of the leaked accusation, which was reported in a New Yorker article Friday, the panel won’t delay action.
“The committee vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination will proceed as scheduled, next Thursday,” Judiciary Committee aides announced Friday.
It’s a move that will likely stave off a repeat of the 1991 inquiry into then-nominee Clarence Thomas, now an associate justice, whose confirmation process was stalled and nearly derailed by last-minute accusations of sexual harassment by a former co-worker, Anita Hill.
Republicans rushed to defend Kavanaugh Friday, and one GOP aide noted that “people have made the connection” to the Thomas inquiry after the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., first announced the existence of the claim on Thursday, despite having knowledge of it in July.
Outside groups who oppose Kavanaugh say the proceedings should be halted now that details have emerged about the accuser, who claims Kavanaugh held her down at a party, covered her mouth, cranked up the music, and attempted to sexually assault her.
“We already have an accused sexual predator in the White House and we don’t need yet another on the Supreme Court,” Heidi Hess, a director of the progressive activist group CREDO Action, said Friday. ”Senate Republicans must not rush forward with Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation while new information continues to be revealed about his past sexual misconduct.”
Kavanaugh on Friday denied the claim and Senate Republicans are so far not wavering in their support.
The committee, run by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a hastily assembled letter from 65 female friends of Kavanaugh who say they knew him during his high school years, from 1979 to 1983, and could vouch for his character. Kavanaugh, they said, “has always been a good person.”
The nominee may be poised to dodge a Clarence Thomas repeat, but it’s not entirely because of character witnesses. The Judiciary Committee is run by Republicans who so far say there is no reason — and no way — to hold an inquiry at this point.
“With the accuser requesting privacy, having even apparently asked Sen. Feinstein not to move forward with her accusations, there is no way to get further information about what may have happened,” a top aide said.
Feinstein referred the matter to the FBI but redacted the accuser’s name. Not even Grassley knows, it, aides said, which gives the committee nothing to go on. “There is no potential for future investigations whatsoever,” the aide said.
The circumstances were much different for Thomas, who faced a Democratic majority and then-Committee Chairman Joe Biden. Hill was also willing to testify against him publicly.
After the media leaked Hill’s once-confidential accusations from an FBI report, Biden convened a dayslong, televised inquiry that pitted Hill’s lurid details of harassment against Thomas’ adamant denials.
Thomas was confirmed by a narrow 52-48 margin on Oct. 15, 1991.
Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and former high court clerk, said the move to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination and Feinstein’s decision to reveal the claim so late in the process is a vivid example of partisan politics.
It comes after a contentious confirmation hearing interrupted by Democrats seeking to postpone the process. Democrats also released confidential Kavanaugh emails from his time working for President George W. Bush to raise questions about his political leanings and integrity.
“For all the failings of the Thomas hearings,” Whelan told the Washington Examiner, “in many ways this process has been much more abusive of Judge Kavanaugh.”
Kavanaugh must still win over moderate Republicans Susan Collins, of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska. And even if he avoids a public hearing on the sexual misconduct accusation, it could still sink his confirmation.
Collins, who is still undecided, talked to Kavanaugh for an hour by phone Friday. Spokeswoman Annie Clark would not disclose what the two discussed and said Collins isn’t planning to comment on the matter.
Murkowski aides did not respond to an inquiry about the senator’s reaction the the Kavanaugh claim.
