ACCUSATIONS AT 11TH HOUR
Woman tells Brett-party ‘rape’ tale
A third woman came forward Wednesday with explosive allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — including that he helped “spike” drinks at parties in the 1980s where girls were “gang raped.”
In a response released by the White House, Kavanaugh called the claims “ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone.”
“I don’t know who this is, and this never happened,” he said.
His third accuser, Julie Swetnick, signed a declaration released Wednesday that said she attended more than 10 parties in the DC area with a then-teenage Kavanaugh and his high-school buddy Mark Judge between 1981 and 1983.
She alleges she saw them and their pals spike punch to make girls “lose their inhibitions.” She said the young men also would get girls “inebriated and disoriented” so they could be “gang raped” by a “train” of boys.
“During the years 1981-82, I became aware of efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to ‘spike’ the ‘ punch’ at house parties I attended with drugs and/ or grain alcohol so as to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say ‘no,’ ” Swetnick said in a statement tweeted by her lawyer, Michael Avenatti.
“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 bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys.
“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 the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.
“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present,” Swetnick said.
“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.”
Swetnick doesn’t directly accuse either man of assaulting her.
An attorney for Judge told MSNBC, “Mr. Judge vehemently denies Ms. Swetnick’s allegations.”
During the parties, Swetnick said, a drunken Kavanaugh was often verbally abusive to women and grabbed and fondled them.
“I observed Brett Kavanaugh drink excessively at many of these parties and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent, ‘grinding’ against girls, and attempting to remove or shift girls’ clothing to expose private body parts,” her declaration reads.
Swetnick, 55, graduated in 1980 from Gaithersburg HS in Maryland, meaning she already would have been out of high school when she attended the parties. Kavanaugh, 53, and Judge attended the all-boys Georgetown Prep.
Despite her claims, a group of 60 people who went to Kavanaugh’s high school and other schools in the area put out a letter Wednesday saying they had never heard of Swetnick or any sex parties like the ones she described.
According to the Miami Herald, an ex-boyfriend accused Swetnick of domestic violence in 2001 after she allegedly threatened him and his family.
The former boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, told Politico — which reported he took out a restraining order — that Swetnick was “not credible at all.”
His case was dismissed 13 days after it was filed, because the two did not appear in court.
Also Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Swetnick filed a sexual-harassment complaint against her former employer, New York Life Insurance Co., about 10 years ago. A financial settlement was reached.
Now a software developer, Swetnick notes in her declaration that she holds “active clearances” for her work with the US Department of Treasury, US Mint and Internal Revenue Service.
She said she also previously had security clearances with the State Department, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection.
“My client has been issued a number of security clearances by the federal government over the years. She has been fully vetted time and time again, and she is an honest and courageous woman,” Avenatti told MSNBC.
Trump, meanwhile, called Avenatti “a low-life.’’ He also tweeted that Avenatti — who reps porn star Stormy Daniels over her allegations that she had an affair with Trump — 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.”
Also on Wednesday, it was revealed that the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Kavanaugh about two other allegations.
One was made in an anonymous letter that claimed Kavanaugh shoved an unidentified woman “aggressively and sexually” in the 1990s.
The other, which was soon recanted, came from a Rhode Island man who claimed Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman on a boat in the 1980s. That man later tweeted he was mistaken, according to the Daily Caller.
Kavanaugh denied those allegations in a phone interview Tuesday with Senate investigators.
“We’re dealing with an anonymous letter about an anonymous person and an anonymous friend,” Kavanaugh said, according to a transcript released by the Judiciary Committee. “It’s ridiculous. Total Twilight Zone. And no, I’ve never done anything like that.”
He added, “I think this is — this is crazy town. It’s a smear campaign . . . It’s just outrageous. It’s trying to take me down, trying to take down my family.
“It’s bad — it’s doing damage to the Supreme Court,” he continued. “It’s doing damage to the country. It’s doing damage to this process. It’s become a total feeding frenzy, you know?”
Kavanaugh has already been accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford at a party in the early 1980s, where Ford claims the then-17-year-old held her down and tried to pull her clothes off while covering her mouth. She claims Judge also was in the room.
Last weekend, a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, alleged that Kavanaugh shoved his penis in front of her face at a drunken dorm party while they were both at Yale University during the 1983-84 school year.
Kavanaugh has denied both allegations. Judge says he has “no memory” of the incident Ford describes.