Kavanaugh denies sexual misconduct allegation
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are pressing forward with Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, showing no signs of hesitation after he “categorically” denied a decadesold sexual misconduct allegation that has roiled the final days of an already rancorous confirmation fight.
The statement from Kavanaugh on Friday was his first response to news reports about a possible episode of sexual misconduct that surfaced this week. A letter received by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, details an accusation from a woman who said she was at a party with Kavanaugh when they were both in high school, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The letter says that Kavanaugh and the woman went into a room along with a friend of Kavanaugh’s, and that Kavanaugh allegedly held her down, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. She said she escaped from the room.
The letter, which is brief, is dated in July, according to another person familiar with it.
“I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation,” Kavanaugh, 53, said in a statement distributed by the White House. “I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
The sudden disclosure of the allegation against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick has only raised more questions, particularly about how the information had been handled as Kavanaugh’s confirmation progressed steadily through the Senate. His fate now hinges on the decisions of a handful of undecided senators, particularly two Republican women — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — who support abortion rights and now have to weigh the allegation in an era in which awareness of sexual harassment and misconduct have come to the forefront.
White House officials spent the day making calls to senators and aides to determine what impact the letter will have on Kavanaugh’s nomination and whether it might blow it up, according to a senior administration official. As of now, White House officials do not believe it will.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not commented on the allegation, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Judiciary Committee and only learned of the letter through news reports, has been briefed on its contents.
But Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the most senior Senate Republican who has read the letter, said “every accuser deserves to be heard, but a process of verification is also necessary.” The GOPcontrolled Judiciary Committee reiterated Friday that it would hold a panel vote Thursday.
Republicans are intent on confirming Kavanaugh in the final week of September, which would put him on track to be installed at the court by the start of its fall session on Oct. 1.
The developments snowballed this week after Feinstein released a cryptic and vague statement Thursday saying she had referred “information” about Kavanaugh to federal authorities. She did not detail the material she had, citing confidentiality concerns. That information came via a letter that was sent to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and subsequently passed on to Feinstein, people familiar with the matter said.
A spokesman for Feinstein said Friday that the senator received the information through a third party.
“The senator took these allegations seriously and believed they should be public,” spokesman Tom Mentzer said. “However, the woman in question made it clear she did not want this information to be public.”
The version of the letter that the FBI received has redacted the name of the woman, according to a Republican official with knowledge of the letter.
The FBI does not plan to launch a criminal investigation into the matter and instead sent the material to the White House to be added to Kavanaugh’s background-check file.
Judiciary Committee staffers noted that Kavanaugh has undergone six FBI background investigations in a public-service career that began in 1993. No such sexual misconduct allegation had surfaced in those probes, Republicans said.
Anita Hill, the Brandeis University professor who testified in 1991 that now-Justice Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her, said Friday that the allegation against Kavanaugh shows the government “needs to find a fair and neutral way for complaints to be investigated.”