New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly claim that they have seven sources who “more fully [corroborate]” Deborah Ramirez’s allegation that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party.
Yet of those seven, only one even claims to have heard that Kavanaugh was the person in the story at the time, as they admit in their book, The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation. And even he is only a third-hand source of information, not having actually been there himself, and having heard it from a source whose identity he does not disclose.
Kenneth Appold, who had previously spoken to the New Yorker, claimed to have heard at the time that Kavanaugh was the person who had exposed himself to Ramirez.
“Within a couple of days of the party, Ken Appold stood in a Lawrance Hall entryway and was told by two Stiles freshmen (whose identity he can’t recall) what Kavanaugh had done to Ramirez,” write Pogrebin and Kelly in their book. “‘It was fresh in their recollection,’ Appold said. ‘One person saw it; the second person was hearing the story from him for the second time.'”
The only other of the seven who claim to have heard about the story in its immediate aftermath was fellow Yalie Richard Oh, who the book reports “overheard a female student emotionally describing making contact with a fake penis, saying ‘It’s not real,’ and then realizing it was real.” There is no indication, however, that Oh identified Kavanaugh by name as the culprit.
A few years after the alleged incident, Ramirez’s mother claims her daughter told her, “Something happened at Yale.” She did not go into any further detail or provide a name.
Another person supposedly proving that the story is “more fully corroborated” is Michael Wetstone, who claims to have heard “about the incident” from Appold, his graduate school classmate, “within a few years of when it allegedly happened.” The book does not make clear if Appold identified Kavanaugh by name.
Two other Yale classmates, Chad Ludington and James Roche, are described as “vaguely remember[ing] hearing about something happening to Ramirez during her freshman year.” Roche had only a vague recollection of hearing about the Ramirez incident, but he also told the New Yorker, “I cannot imagine her making this up,” adding that he remembered Kavanaugh as “frequently, incoherently drunk.'” Ludington comments further in the book that he believes that Kavanaugh lied about his drinking habits, but is not further quoted on the Ramirez allegation. The book does not imply that either Roche or Appold identified Kavanaugh by name or the extent of their familiarity with the rumor.
The seventh and final source is “an unidentified friend of Ramirez’s who said in a recent affidavit that she heard about the incident in the 1990s — remembers being told about it within a decade of its alleged occurence.” In the affidavit, the book reports that the friend described “a male classmate.” The book does not imply that she identified Kavanaugh by name.
Ramirez names David White, Kevin Genda, and David Todd all as witnessing the alleged incident, yet in their statement to the New Yorker, all three said, “We can say with confidence that if the incident Debbie alleges ever occurred, we would have seen or heard about it — and we did not.” No one other than Ramirez claims to have witnessed the alleged incident, and the book reports that she did not recall telling anyone about it at the time.
To recap: Of the seven sources meant to bolster the credibility of Ramirez’s allegation, only one recalls hearing Kavanaugh mentioned as the perp by an unknown source who, if he ever existed, has since failed to come forward. Only one other person claims to have independently heard about such an incident at the time, but he does not appeared to have named Kavanaugh in connection with it. Three of the sources may not have recalled any details about the incident, and another one just heard it from the first.
Ramirez’s own mother, meanwhile, cannot corroborate anything past “something happened.”
And finally, every person named as being in the room when this supposedly happened denies that it ever happened. That’s corroboration for you.
