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WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, facing mounting allegations of sexual impropriety and growing doubts over his confirmation to the Supreme Court, vowed on Monday to fight the “smears,” saying he will not withdraw his nomination.
WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, facing new allegations of sexual impropriety and growing doubts over his confirmation to the Supreme Court, mounted an aggressive defense of himself on Monday, vowing to fight the “smears” and declaring that he will not withdraw his nomination.
“These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse,” he wrote in a letter to the senior Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country. Such grotesque and obvious character assassination — if allowed to succeed — will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service.”
With President Trump publicly backing him, and senior Senate Republicans closing ranks around him, Judge Kavanaugh — joined by his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh — gave an extraordinary interview to Fox News that aired Monday evening. He pledged to “defend my integrity, my lifelong record,” and told his interviewer, Martha MacCallum, that he “did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.”
“I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” he continued. “The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed.”
He also directly addressed the accusation from Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychologist in Northern California, that he had assaulted her when they were teenagers, more than 30 years ago, at a high school gathering in suburban Washington.
[Read Judge Kavanaugh’s letter.]
“The truth is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone, in high school or otherwise,” Judge Kavanaugh said. “I am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps Dr. Ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone at some place, but what I know is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone.”
Senior Republicans are closing ranks around the nominee, and they echoed Judge Kavanaugh’s claims, accusing Democrats of running “a smear campaign” to derail his confirmation.
It is a remarkable step for a Supreme Court nominee to submit to a television interview — or make any public utterance — before a confirmation vote, and Judge Kavanaugh’s team chose a network that features ardent conservative commentators. Fox News is also a favorite venue of the president’s, offering the judge an avenue to make his case to Mr. Trump.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, is expected to deliver an unequivocal defense of Judge Kavanaugh when the Senate convenes Monday afternoon, laying out “why he will make an exceptional justice,” according to a top Republican aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the leader’s remarks.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, a senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee and its former chairman, issued a statement attacking Democrats, who he said “will stop at nothing to prevent Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation,” and called for the panel to vote on Judge Kavanaugh after a hearing set for Thursday. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, agreed.
The president said Monday that he is sticking with him. In an interview with Geraldo Rivera for the debut show of “Geraldo in Cleveland” on WTAM radio, Mr. Trump called Judge Kavanaugh a “fantastic, fantastic man, a fantastic talent and intellect.” In brief remarks in New York, he dismissed the allegations about the judge’s conduct decades ago as “totally political.”
“The Democrats are engaged in a campaign of delay and character assassination against Judge Kavanaugh,” Mr. Cotton said Monday morning. “It’s time to vote this week.”
The comments from the Republicans — as well as from President Trump, who told reporters on Monday that he will back Judge Kavanaugh “all the way” — sought to put to rest speculation that the party’s support for the nominee could be cracking. But in a Senate where Republicans hold a 51-to-49 advantage, Republican leaders ultimately will not decide whether Judge Kavanaugh reaches the highest court in the land. He will need the support of virtually every Senate Republican, including two key swing votes, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; one retiring Republican who has expressed misgivings, Jeff Flake of Arizona; and the one Republican up for re-election in November in a state won by Hillary Clinton, Dean Heller of Nevada.
But even as Judge Kavanaugh was defending his integrity, the hits on his once clean-cut image kept coming. The New York Times published an account of him and some of his high school football teammates boasting in their yearbooks about exploits with a student at a nearby Catholic girls’ school, boasts the woman recently called “horrible, hurtful and simply untrue.”
Even before that account was published, Washington was reeling from a rat-a-tat spate of other accusations against him. The New Yorker magazine published an account from a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale University with Judge Kavanaugh and said he exposed himself to her during a drunken dormitory party. And the lawyer Michael Avenatti posted additional salacious allegations on Twitter.
In light of fresh allegations, Democrats have demanded that Republicans once again delay a hearing, now scheduled for Thursday, when one of Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, is to testify against him. Dr. Blasey has said that the judge sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers more than 30 years ago. Judge Kavanaugh has vigorously denied the allegation and has said he wants to testify to clear his name.
In the interview with Fox, Judge Kavanaugh flatly denied Ms. Ramirez’s accusation. “I never did any such thing — never did any such thing,” he said. “The other people alleged to be there, don’t recall any such thing. If such a thing had happened, it would’ve been the talk of campus.”
The new accusations at first threatened to derail a hearing, scheduled for Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey are planning to testify in a potentially explosive session that could well determine the judge’s fate. Democrats have demanded that the hearing be delayed while the allegations are investigated.
The new accusations at first threatened to derail a hearing, scheduled for Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey are planning to testify in a potentially explosive session that could well determine the judge’s fate. Democrats have demanded that the hearing be delayed while the allegations are investigated.
A spokesman for Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the Judiciary Committee chairman, said Republicans are looking into the new allegations, but they intend to continue with Thursday’s hearing. And Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, took to the Senate floor on Monday afternoon to declare unequivocally that the Senate will move forward with a vote on the nomination.
A spokesman for Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the Judiciary Committee chairman, said Republicans are looking into the new allegations, but they intend to continue with Thursday’s hearing. And Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, took to the Senate floor on Monday afternoon to declare unequivocally that the Senate will move forward with a vote on the nomination.
“I want to make it perfectly clear, Mr. President: Judge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor,” Mr. McConnell said, addressing the Senate’s presiding officer and leaving no room to pressure the nominee to withdraw. “Up or down. On the Senate floor, this fine nominee to the Supreme Court will receive a vote in this Senate in the near future.”
“I want to make it perfectly clear, Mr. President: Judge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor,” Mr. McConnell said, addressing the Senate’s presiding officer and leaving no room to pressure the nominee to withdraw. “Up or down. On the Senate floor, this fine nominee to the Supreme Court will receive a vote in this Senate in the near future.”
Earlier Monday, Judge Kavanaugh sent a letter to the WB_wombat_top Democrat and the WB_wombat_top Republican on the Judiciary Committee in which he denounced what he called a “grotesque and obvious character assassination.”
Earlier Monday, Judge Kavanaugh sent a letter to the WB_wombat_top Democrat and the WB_wombat_top Republican on the Judiciary Committee in which he denounced what he called a “grotesque and obvious character assassination.”
“I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” he wrote. “The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed.”
“I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” he wrote. “The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed.”
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber’s No. 2. Republican, told reporters that the judiciary panel could vote on Judge Kavanaugh as early as Friday.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber’s No. 2. Republican, told reporters that the judiciary panel could vote on Judge Kavanaugh as early as Friday.
For Republicans, the hearing and the women’s accusations are fraught with political dangers. In the #MeToo era, Republicans cannot afford to attack Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers. So they have instead trained their fire on Senate Democrats, accusing them of waging a campaign of character assassination, and on the news media — in particular The New Yorker. Many cited a Times article that said The Times had conducted numerous interviews but was unable to corroborate Ms. Ramirez’s story.
For Republicans, the hearing and the women’s accusations are fraught with political dangers. In the #MeToo era, Republicans cannot afford to attack Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers. So they have instead trained their fire on Senate Democrats, accusing them of waging a campaign of character assassination, and on the news media — in particular The New Yorker. Many cited a Times article that said The Times had conducted numerous interviews but was unable to corroborate Ms. Ramirez’s story.
But The Times did not rebut her account and, unlike The New Yorker, was not able to obtain an interview with Ms. Ramirez.
But The Times did not rebut her account and, unlike The New Yorker, was not able to obtain an interview with Ms. Ramirez.
At least one senior Republican — Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah — did go after Ms. Ramirez. “You’re going to have these phony accusations,” he told reporters, adding, “We should listen to everybody who has a comment here, but we’re down to rug-cutting time.”
At least one senior Republican — Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah — did go after Ms. Ramirez. “You’re going to have these phony accusations,” he told reporters, adding, “We should listen to everybody who has a comment here, but we’re down to rug-cutting time.”
[Read Judge Kavanaugh’s letter.]
[Read Judge Kavanaugh’s letter.]
But in a Senate where Republicans hold a 51-to-49 advantage, Republican leaders ultimately will not decide whether Judge Kavanaugh reaches the nation’s highest court. He will need the support of virtually every Senate Republican, including two key swing votes, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; one retiring Republican who has expressed misgivings, Jeff Flake of Arizona; and the one Republican up for re-election in November in a state won by Hillary Clinton in 2016, Dean Heller of Nevada.
But in a Senate where Republicans hold a 51-to-49 advantage, Republican leaders ultimately will not decide whether Judge Kavanaugh reaches the nation’s highest court. He will need the support of virtually every Senate Republican, including two key swing votes, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; one retiring Republican who has expressed misgivings, Jeff Flake of Arizona; and the one Republican up for re-election in November in a state won by Hillary Clinton in 2016, Dean Heller of Nevada.
But just hours after lawyers for Dr. Blasey and Senate Judiciary Committee aides finished negotiations on the shape of Thursday’s hearing, new allegations began to surface. First, The New Yorker published an interview with a woman, Deborah Ramirez, who said that Judge Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a drunken dormitory party during their first year at Yale.
Time and time again in the Fox interview, Judge Kavanaugh talked about his respect for women, specifically what he called his “lifelong record of promoting dignity and equality.”
His wife, sitting next to him in the interview, talked about preparing their children — they have two daughters — for what they would read and hear about the accusations. “It’s very difficult, these conversations with your children, which we’ve had to have some broader terms for our youngest,” Ms. Kavanaugh said.
“And we told them at the very beginning of this process this will be not fun sometimes,” she added.
Dr. Blasey has said that she intended for her accusations to remain confidential, but after word of them began to leak, she shared her account of the episode with The Washington Post. In a letter sent Saturday to Mr. Grassley, Dr. Blasey — who sometimes goes by her married name, Ford — said that she decided to share her account with her congresswoman, Representative Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat of California, when Judge Kavanaugh’s name was being floated as a potential Supreme Court nominee.
The New York Times had interviewed several dozen people over the past week in an attempt to corroborate Ms. Ramirez’s story, and could find no one with firsthand knowledge. Ms. Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the episode and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself.
Her legal team released the letter on Monday.
The New Yorker strongly stood by its article.
The decision to come forward, Dr. Blasey wrote, “was a very difficult one, but I felt that this was something that a citizen couldn’t NOT do. I felt agony yet urgency and a civic duty to let it be known, in a confidential manner, prior to the nominee being selected.”
Adding to Republican concerns, Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress who claims to have had an affair with Mr. Trump before he became president, posted additional salacious allegations on Twitter. A spokesman for Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the Judiciary Committee chairman, said Republicans are looking into the new allegations, but they intend to continue with Thursday’s hearing as planned.
She went on: “Mr. Kavanaugh’s actions, while many years ago, were serious and have had a lasting impact on my life. I thought that knowledge of his actions could be useful for you and those in charge of choosing among the various candidates. My original intent was first and foremost to be a helpful citizen.”
Republicans find themselves caught between the growing anger of many female voters over the Kavanaugh allegations and the demands of core conservative voters infuriated by what they see as a Democratic plot. Religious conservatives have doubled down on their support for Judge Kavanaugh, arguing that the developments are a last-ditch effort by Democrats to derail the conservative judicial agenda that Mr. Trump promised them in 2016.
[Read Dr. Blasey’s letter.]
And conservative judicial activists are keeping up the pressure on Republicans to plow forward.
Mr. Grassley replied that he was committed to making sure she was heard. “It’s important to me that you personally know how sincere and thorough this effort has been, including my commitment to make sure committee members and other senators are able to hear directly from you,” he wrote in a letter that his aides released Monday. He added a postscript in his own hand: “P.S. I look forward to your testimony.” He signed the letter, “Chuck.”
“The White House is clearly very strongly behind him,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group that is coordinating support for Judge Kavanaugh. “We are very strongly behind him. If anything, I’m seeing conservatives more galvanized by what is going on because it has become such a pattern of unsubstantiated smears and character assassination.”
Judge Kavanaugh’s lawyers, Beth Wilkinson and Alexandra Walsh, assailed The New Yorker article on Monday as unfounded.
In Washington and around the country on Monday, activists held a “national moment of solidarity” organized by a number of women’s groups in support of Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers and the larger #MeToo movement.
“It is facts and evidence that matter when accusations of this kind are made,” the lawyers said in a statement. “Notwithstanding that, the editors of The New Yorker chose to publicize a story describing an alleged incident from Judge Kavanaugh’s college days that not a single eyewitness could corroborate and that even the person making the allegation is herself uncertain about.”
On Capitol Hill, hundreds of protesters flooded the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building on Monday, dressed in black and holding signs that said, “I believe Deborah Ramirez” and “I believe Christine Blasey Ford.” Dozens camped outside the offices of Senators Collins and Flake.
They said that “testimony as well as documentary evidence from the time” will exonerate him of the allegation that he assaulted Dr. Blasey, presumably a reference to calendar pages that Judge Kavanaugh kept from the summer of 1982 that do not show a party clearly matching the small gathering Dr. Blasey has described.
And more than 100 Yale Law students, as their classmates participated in a demonstration at Mr. Kavanaugh’s alma mater, traveled to Washington to appear at a news conference with Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both Democrats and both of whom are Yale Law alumni.
“The unsubstantiated allegations that have been made against Judge Kavanaugh are serious — but so too is his right to be fully and fairly heard in responding to and unequivocally denying those allegations,” the lawyers said.
Republicans find themselves caught between the growing anger of many female voters over the Kavanaugh allegations and the demands of core conservative voters infuriated by what they see as a Democratic plot. Religious conservatives have doubled down on their support for Judge Kavanaugh, arguing that the developments are a last-ditch effort by Democrats to derail the conservative judicial agenda that Mr. Trump promised them in 2016.
The police department in Montgomery County, Md., the affluent Washington suburb where Judge Kavanaugh grew up, issued a blanket statement denying the validity of a local news outlet’s claim of yet another accuser surfacing from his teenage years.
And conservative judicial activists are keeping up the pressure on Republicans to plow forward.
“At this time, the Montgomery County Police Department has not received a request by any alleged victim nor a victim’s attorney to initiate a police report or a criminal investigation regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh,” the department said in a statement Monday afternoon. The statement added, “The department, however, stands prepared to assist anyone who reports being the victim of a sexual assault.”
“The White House is clearly very strongly behind him,” said Carrie Severino, the chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group that is coordinating support for Judge Kavanaugh. “We are very strongly behind him. If anything, I’m seeing conservatives more galvanized by what is going on because it has become such a pattern of unsubstantiated smears and character assassination.”