The latest allegations of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are not true, senior Judiciary Committee member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, declared Monday.
Hatch said the claim put forward by Deborah Ramirez in the New Yorker Sunday that Kavanuagh thrust his groin in her face during their freshman year at Yale is “phony,” and does not require a new investigation or even a hearing before the panel.
“You are going to have these phony accusations come,” Hatch told reporters as he headed into a GOP meeting Monday. “It’s always the case when you have a contested situation.”
[Brett Kavanaugh: Second sexual misconduct allegation ‘a smear, plain and simple’]
Hatch said the panel “should give due listen to everybody who has a comment here,” and that the panel should vote as soon as the end of the week, after a planned hearing with another accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, who said Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her when the two were in high school.
Hatch said he believes Ford is “sincere,” but added, “I think she’s sincerely wrong,” about her Kavanaugh accusation.
When asked how he knew Ramirez was not being truthful, he said, “because I know, that’s why.”
The New Yorker story did not find any witnesses to back up the Ramirez’s claim, but a former classmate said he had heard about the incident she described.
