3 MORE HIT KAV
Woman tells of party gang rapes Others claim attacks in D.C. & R.I
Another woman went public with disturbing allegations against Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday, accusing the embattled Supreme Court nominee of being in the room when she was gang raped while “incapacitated” at a party in the early 1980s.
The woman, Julie Swetnick, released a sworn declaration describing the alleged attack involving Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge at the house party in the Washington, D.C., area.
The shocking allegations came less than 24 hours before Kavanaugh was set to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify along with Christine Blasey Ford, one of his four other accusers.
“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present,” Swetnick wrote under penalty of perjury.
“During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking,” she said.
Her lawyer Michael Avenatti said the Judiciary Committee has asked her to speak with congressional investigators. He said they hadn’t made a final decision on whether she will do so as of Wednesday afternoon, but he echoed Democratic demands for a federal probe into the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“We prefer that the FBI launch an investigation immediately,” Avenatti told the Daily News in a phone interview. “This is a woman of significant courage and fortitude and she should be applauded for her strength instead of being vilified by a bunch of white guys in the Senate.”
In a stunning development, two more anonymous sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh came to light late Wednesday when the Judiciary Committee released transcripts of phone calls Republicans had with him this week.
According to the transcripts, the first accusation was outlined in a letter sent to Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and involved an alleged incident in 1998, in which Kavanaugh would have “very aggressively and sexually” shoved a woman up against a wall outside a bar in Washington.
The second accusation was flagged by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who had told Republicans that a woman called his office and alleged Kavanaugh had tried to rape her on a boat in Newport, R.I., in 1985.
Kavanaugh has consistently denied all allegations against him.
In a statement responding to Swetnick’s allegations earlier Wednesday, Kavanaugh said, “This is ridiculous and from the ‘Twilight Zone.’ ”
Swetnick said she still lives in the Washington area and presently holds active security clearances related to the Treasury Department, the U.S. Mint and the IRS.
She previously held socalled “secret” clearances with the State Department and Justice Department, according to her signed statement.
In her declaration, Swetnick said she met Kavanaugh and Judge in 1980 or 1981 at a house party and observed the two were “extremely close friends” who seemed to be “joined at the hip.”
She recalled attending more than 10 house parties where Kavanaugh allegedly got drunk and turned “physically aggressive” toward girls, “grinding” against them, “demeaning” them verbally and “attempting to remove or shift (their) clothing.”
Swetnick said she eventually learned that Kavanaugh and Judge were part of a group of boys who allegedly would “spike” the punch at house parties “to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say ‘No.’ ”
“I also witnessed efforts by
Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be ‘gang raped’ in a side room or bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys,” she said.
“I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties, waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside a room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.”
She said shortly after she became the victim in the room, she shared what had happened with at least two other people.
“I am aware of other witnesses that can attest to the truthfulness of each of the statements above,” she said.
Trump renewed his defense of Kavanaugh on Wednesday — this time by attacking Avenatti.
Avenatti also represents Stormy Daniels, the porn star who signed a $130,000 hush-money deal with Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen over her alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
“Avenatti is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations, like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” Trump tweeted. “He is just looking for attention.”
Avenatti fired back, “How dare you attack a sexual assault victim? She has risked her life to do the right thing. You should be ashamed.”
Kavanaugh, 53, has been publicly accused of sexual misconduct dating back to his high school and college years by at least five women, putting his nomination for the high court at risk.
Ford, a psychologist and university professor now living with her husband and kids in Northern California, stepped forward earlier this month to claim Kavanaugh held her down, tried to remove her clothes and covered her mouth at a drunken high school party in the 1980s.
In his opening remarks for Thursday’s hearing, Kavanaugh will acknowledge drinking alcohol during his high school years but deny ever attacking Ford.
“I drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes I had too many. In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now,” the prepared testimony states. “I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation against me by Dr. Ford. I never had any sexual or physical encounter of any kind with Dr. Ford.”
The Judiciary Committee released the testimony along with several of Kavanaugh’s calendar pages from 1982. His handwritten entries depict a busy schedule of sports, academics, college interviews — and plenty of parties and social gatherings with friends.
Lawyers for Ford, meanwhile, released to the committee affidavits from Ford’s husband and three of her friends revealing she spoke about her alleged assault by Kavanaugh multiple times before he became Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.
In his signed affidavit, Ford’s husband, Russell Ford, said she described the alleged assault by Kavanaugh during a therapy session in 2012.