Second woman airs Kavanaugh allegation; court pick denies assault at college party

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- A second accusation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh emerged Sunday night, hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a Thursday hearing for Kavanaugh and a woman who says he sexually assaulted her as a teenager.

The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday night that Senate Democrats were investigating a second woman's accusation, which dates to the 1983-84 academic year, Kavanaugh's first at Yale University.

The New Yorker said 53-year-old Deborah Ramirez described the incident in an interview after being contacted by the magazine. Ramirez recalled that Kavanaugh exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his genitals in her face, and caused her to touch them without her consent as she pushed him away, the magazine reported.

In a statement provided by the White House, Kavanaugh said the event "did not happen" and that the allegation was "a smear, plain and simple." A White House spokesman added in a second statement that the allegation was "designed to tear down a good man."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called Sunday night for the "immediate postponement" of any further action on Kavanaugh's nomination. She also asked the committee's chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to have the FBI investigate the allegations of both Ramirez and Christine Blasey Ford.

The Senate committee officially agreed to a date and time for a hearing with Kavanaugh and Ford after nearly a week of uncertainty over whether Ford would appear to tell her story.

Grassley wrangled with Ford's lawyers for the past week over the exact terms of her appearance. She made several requests, some of which were accommodated -- a Thursday hearing, three days later than originally scheduled, and a smaller hearing room with less press access to avoid a media circus, for example. Grassley's staff also agreed to let Ford testify without Kavanaugh in the room, for there to be only one camera in the room, and for there to be "adequate" breaks and a high security presence.

Ford's attorneys said Sunday that they agreed to the hearing despite the committee's refusal to let her speak after Kavanaugh's testimony, interview other people she identified as present at the party where the alleged assault took place, or ask the FBI to look into her allegations in advance of her appearance. Senate Democratic leaders sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Sunday urging him to direct the FBI to conduct an investigation into Ford's claims, arguing it would only take a few days.

Ford's lawyers also said they had not been told whether the Republican senators on the committee would themselves ask Ford questions or defer to staff or an independent lawyer to question her. It is customary that senators ask their own questions during public hearings.

But there is a potential political risk if the all-male roster of Republicans on the panel -- few of whom have any experience questioning sexual-assault victims -- grills Ford in a way that reminds viewers of 1991, when Anita Hill told the panel that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her. Thomas' nomination was confirmed.

"The Anita Hill hearing was a disaster, but they did have an FBI investigation; they did have other witnesses," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, alleging that Republican senators had "predetermined the outcome" of the Kavanaugh hearing and set up a "he said, she said" showdown around Ford's allegations.

"The Senate, Congress, failed the test in 1991," Murray continued. "How the Senate handles this, and the Senate Republicans handle this, will be a test of this time, in 2018, in the 'Me Too' movement, can we do better? And I feel we are failing that if we don't do it correctly."

Ford's lawyers have strongly opposed having an outside questioner, arguing that it could give the hearing a prosecutorial tone. And Senate Democrats have indicated that when Ford is questioned by Democrats, senators will be doing the talking, no matter whom Republicans choose to question her.

"We were told no decision has been made on this important issue, even though various senators have been dismissive of her account and should have to shoulder their responsibility to ask her questions," Ford's lawyers said in a statement. "Nor were we told when we would have that answer or answers to the other unresolved issues."

But George Hartmann, a spokesman for Grassley, said: "As far as we're concerned, everything is resolved. The hearing is set for Thursday under the conditions outlined in the chairman's letter on Friday."

Ford said Kavanaugh forced her onto a bed, drunkenly groped her, tried to take off her clothes and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. Ford said a friend of Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, was in the room -- but neither he nor others who she said were at the party have claimed any knowledge or memory of the incident, although at least one said she believes Ford's allegations.

Ford told The Washington Post that one person at the party was a boy named "PJ." Patrick J. Smyth, a friend of Kavanaugh who signed a letter of support for his nomination, has told the Judiciary Committee that he has no knowledge of the party and has never witnessed Kavanaugh behave improperly toward women, according to a letter from Smyth's attorney that the committee made public Sunday. Through his lawyer, Smyth declined to comment Sunday.

Ford said her friend Leland Keyser also was at the party. In an email to the committee, an attorney for Keyser wrote that she "does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present." In a brief interview with The Washington Post, Keyser said she did not recall the party but believed Ford's account.

KAVANAUGH'S DEFENSE

In a preview of his defense, Kavanaugh planned Sunday to hand over to the Judiciary Committee calendars from the summer of 1982 that do not contain evidence of a party similar to the one described by Ford. His team plans to argue that the calendar pages represent a piece of evidence that fails to corroborate Ford's account, according to a person familiar with the defense.

The calendars do not disprove the allegations, Kavanaugh's team acknowledged. He could have attended a party that he did not list. But his team will argue to the senators that the calendars provide no corroboration for her account.

Sensitive to the potential backlash over questioning the credibility of a woman alleging sexual misconduct, Kavanaugh's advisers said he will not challenge her account of being assaulted but will argue that it was not him. Some of Kavanaugh's supporters have also claimed that it is a case of mistaken identity.

The calendar pages from June, July and August 1982, which were examined by The New York Times, show that Kavanaugh was out of town much of the summer, at the beach or away with his parents. When he was at home, the calendars list his basketball games, movie outings, football workouts and college interviews. A few parties are mentioned but include names of friends other than those identified by Ford.

The challenge for senators trying to confirm or refute the accusation against Kavanaugh is that Ford has said she does not recall the specific date or location of the house where the alleged incident occurred. She has said she believes it was during the summer of 1982, and she remembers wearing a bathing suit with other clothing on top of it, suggesting the party might have taken place after a swim outing at a local country club.

Nothing from the calendars indicates whether he might have met Ford. Kavanaugh has told friends and advisers that he does not remember her. But senators are likely to question him on his drinking and partying during that era.

LAWMAKERS WEIGH IN

Last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that if Democrats gain control of Congress in the midterm elections, they will continue to investigate Ford's allegations. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, when asked Sunday whether she agreed with the idea, noted that Maryland -- the state in which Ford alleges the assault took place -- has lifted the statute of limitations on criminal prosecutions of most forms of sexual abuse, adding that "there may be an investigation along those lines."

"This is a situation that is not going to go away," she said.

But Republicans have argued that more FBI scrutiny would be superfluous.

"Their role in this case is not to determine who is telling the truth," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said Sunday on Meet the Press. "I hope that we will get to the truth" during the Judiciary Committee hearing, he added.

Trump also has backed the hearing, but he has questioned Ford's credibility, suggesting in a tweet last week that if the alleged assault was "as bad as she says," she would have filed charges at the time.

That tweet rankled at least one key swing vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said last week that she was "appalled" by Trump's tweet.

The fate of Kavanaugh's nomination is likely to hinge on Democratic and Republican senators such as Collins whose votes are uncertain.

"If one Republican senator should decide that Dr. Ford's allegations, assertions, are true and that they are serious, it could make a big difference," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on ABC's This Week.

Information for this article was contributed by Karoun Demirjian, Emma Brown, Seung Min Kim and Tom Hamburger of The Washington Post; by Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker, Hope Yen and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; and by Peter Baker, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times.

A Section on 09/24/2018

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