BLASEY PAL: IKAV MY DOUBTS
New York Times editors removed a key fact that undermined an article about a new sexual-misconduct accusation against US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, its two reporters said Tuesday.
The detail? That the woman doesn’t actually remember the alleged incident.
Reporters Kate Kelly and Robin Pogrebin had written a weekend essay for the Times about their new book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,’’ that revealed the accusation. The writers relied on allegations leveled by a man who was at a drunken Yale University dorm party where the incident supposedly happened about 30 years ago.
Neither the man, politically connected Democrat Max Stier, nor the alleged victim spoke to the reporters, but the writers said they communicated with people who had.
According to Stier, Kavanaugh — who was nominated by President Trump to the nation’s top court — exposed himself at the raucous party and fellow attendees then shoved him forward, with the future justice’s penis landing in the woman’s hand, the article says.
But as the reporters note in their book, the woman has insisted to friends that she doesn’t remember the alleged incident.
The two writers told MSNBC on Monday night and ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday that they had the important detail in their Times article — but it was deleted by editors before publication.
“Obviously, there had been an error of judgment,’’ Kelly said of the move by their Times editors.
Pogrebin added, “I think what happened actually was that we had her name [in], and the Times doesn’t usually include the name of the victim, and so I think, in this case, the editors felt like it was probably better to remove. And in removing her name, they removed the other reference to the fact that she didn’t remember.”
Asked by “View” co-host Meghan McCain why “you guys left out a key detail,” Kelly, too, then placed the blame on their editors.
“During the editing process, there was an oversight, and this key detail, about the fact that the woman herself has told friends she doesn’t remember it, and has not wanted to talk about it, got cut,” Kelly said.
Politico identified a top Times editor who it said was responsible for removing the essential fact from the copy: Deputy Editorial Page Editor James Dao.
Dao did not return an e-mail or phone message from The Post seeking comment Tuesday.
The Times’ Sunday Review section was given the article only after Kelly and Pogrebin pitched it to the paper’s news section — and the editors there rejected it, Vanity Fair reported.
“Top editors ultimately felt that there wasn’t enough juice to warrant a story there,’’ the mag’s Web site said.
Kavanaugh, 54, did not comment for the Times piece.
In the past he has vehemently denied allegations of sexual misconduct.