The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is not playing around.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has referred yet another Brett Kavanaugh accuser to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. For those of you playing at home, this makes three total criminal referrals.
In mid-September, Sen. Kamala Harris’, D-Calif., office received a letter from a woman who identified herself as “Jane Doe” from Oceanside, Calif. The anonymous woman alleged Kavanaugh had raped her “several times” in the backseat of a car. Later, on Oct. 3, committee investigators received an email from a woman claiming to be the author of the “Jane Doe” letter. Federal investigators tracked down the author of the email and what they found was – not great.
The woman who sent the email, Judy Munro-Leighton, told the committee she lied when she said she wrote the original letter. She said she has never even met Kavanaugh. She is also decades older than the judge. She doesn’t even live in California. She’s a resident of Kentucky.
Grassley has since instructed the DOJ to investigate whether Munro-Leighton provided federal investigators with materially false statements and whether she obstructed the committee’s investigation of the allegations leveled against Kavanaugh.
“The committee is grateful to citizens who come forward with relevant information in good faith, even if they are not one hundred percent sure about what they know. But when individuals intentionally mislead the committee, they divert committee resources during time-sensitive investigations and materially impede our work. Such acts are not only unfair; they are potentially illegal,” Grassley said.
He added, “It is illegal to make materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to Congressional investigators. It is illegal to obstruct committee investigations. Accordingly, in light of the seriousness of these facts, and the threat these types of actions pose to the committee’s ability to perform its constitutional duties, I hope you will give this referral the utmost consideration.”
On Nov. 3, after Grassley had referred Munro-Leighton to the DOJ for criminal investigation, President Trump took a victory lap, drawing confusion and anger from a few in media. Vox published an article titled, “Trump tweets about ‘vicious’ Kavanaugh accuser who lied. It’s not one of the ones you’ve heard of,” wherein the author argued it’s unfair to point to Munro-Leighton’s relatively obscure allegation as proof of a conspiracy against Kavanaugh. Elsewhere, one reporter asked this weekend in a since-deleted tweet whether the referral is even necessary. After all, the Axios reporter explained, Munro-Leighton’s charges went unnoticed by the press and therefore didn’t influence the Kavanaugh confirmation battle. So why pursue the matter now, he asked, wondering if it’s being done to influence the looming November midterm elections.
As it turns out, though, Munro-Leighton’s absurd accusation was covered by the press, albeit not as much as the allegations leveled by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Debora Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick.
CBS News mentioned the “Jane Doe, Oceanside, CA” allegation in the conclusion of a report published on Sept. 27. The San Diego Union Tribune published an entire story on the matter on Oct. 1. That story was cross-posted later at a San Diego Fox affiliate’s website. That same day, the Daily Mail went with one of its typical overly-long headlines, claiming, “Brett Kavanaugh denies ANOTHER sex assault claim.” The left-leaning news site Raw Story published a headline Oct. 1 titled, “‘Powerful senators won’t believe me’: New violent and explicit accusation surfaces against Brett Kavanaugh.” City News Service, a local California news source, published a report on the matter on Oct. 2. That story was also cross-posted later by a CBS News affiliate. Meanwhile, NBC News affiliate KNSD reported on Oct. 2 that Kavanaugh had denied the Oceanside rape claim. ABC News affiliate KGTV also reported he had denied it. The Washington Times published a story that same day titled, “Kamala Harris, in the Judiciary cloak room, with letter accusing Brett Kavanaugh of rape.”
Also, let’s not forget the fact that Munro-Leighton got the idea to claim ownership of the letter because she heard about it on the news.
Even if newsrooms hadn’t covered the story, Grassley would still be doing the right thing. Whether Munro-Leighton’s bogus allegation influenced the confirmation fight shouldn’t determine whether law enforcement take her potentially illegal actions seriously. Whether she broke the law should be the determining thing. It’s as simple as that.
What’s more, it seems clear that after Ford came forward with her allegation, there was a subsequent effort (perhaps not coordinated, but an effort either way) to “soften up” Kavanaugh with various wild and unfounded and clearly defamatory allegations, like those of Julie Swetnick. These, when combined with Ford’s testimony, helped Democrats shape the narrative and establish a pattern of behavior on his part. Unless such activity is punished, it will happen again in future confirmation fights.
