Accuser from Colo. emerges
Woman accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct at Yale in the 1980s
WASHINGTON» The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a woman who says he sexually assaulted her as a teenager, as a claim of sexual misconduct emerged from a Colorado woman.
The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday night that Senate Democrats were investigating a second woman’s accusation of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh dating to the 198384 academic year, Kavanaugh’s first at Yale University.
The New Yorker said 53yearold Deborah Ramirez, who is from Boulder, described the incident in an interview after being contacted by the magazine. Ramirez recalled that Kavanaugh exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away, the magazine reported.
“I didn’t want any of this,” she told the New Yorker. “But now I have to speak.”
There appeared to be some confusion Sunday evening over who was representing Ramirez.
The New Yorker reported that Ramirez is being represented by Stan Garnett, the former district attorney in Boulder County.
Garnett is part of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, one of the largest law firms in Colorado that has netted millions in federal lobbying revenue with major connections in Washington.
However, Lara Day, spokeswoman for Garnett’s law firm, said that “Stan Garnett does not represent Ms. Ramirez. She is being represented by John Clune of Hutchinson Black and Cook.”
Clune, meanwhile, called the statement “not accurate” in a text late Sunday night. He said both he and Garnett were Ramirez’s counsel.
Shannon Beckham, communications adviser to U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, said Bennet’s office put Ramirez in touch with Garnett’s firm.
“Judiciary staff reached out to our office and asked for a connection to someone who might be helpful should Deborah Ramirez decide to come forward with an allegation related to that made by Dr. Ford. We reached out to former Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett who then met with Ms. Ramirez to work through how to analyze and present her allegations,” Beckham wrote in an email.
On Sunday night, Indivisible Front Range Resistance said in an email it would gather at Cory Gardner’s office in downtown Denver on Monday morning asking the Colorado senator to vote no on the Kavanaugh confirmation.
In a statement provided by the White House, Kavanaugh said the event at Yale “did not happen” and that the allegation was “a smear, plain and simple.” A White House spokeswoman added in a second statement that the allegation was “designed to tear down a good man.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called Sunday night for the “immediate postponement” of any further action on Kavanaugh’s nomination. She also asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, RIowa, to have the FBI investigate the allegations of both Ford and Ramirez.
The New Yorker said it contacted Ramirez after learning of a possible involvement in an incident with Kavanaugh and that the allegation came to Democratic senators through a civil rights lawyer. She had been considering speaking to the magazine for at least a week. Meanwhile, Republicans were pressing for a swift hearing and a vote.
The magazine reported that Ramirez was reluctant at first to speak publicly “partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident.” She also acknowledged reluctance “to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty.”
The magazine reported that after “six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections” to recall the incident.
The Associated Press tried reaching Ramirez at her home in Boulder. She posted a sign saying she has no comment on her front door.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they found out about the Ramirez allegations from The New Yorker article and blamed Democrats for withholding the information. Spokesman Taylor Foy said the panel is looking into it.
The new information came hours after the Senate committee agreed to a date and time for a hearing after nearly a week of uncertainty over whether Ford would appear to tell her story.
The agreement and the latest accusation set the stage for a dramatic showdown as Kavanaugh and Ford each tell their side of the story. The developments could also determine the fate of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which hangs on the votes of a handful of senators.
It had seemed assured before Ford, a 51yearold California college professor, went public a week ago with her allegation that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when they were in high school.
Kavanaugh, 53, an appellate court judge, has denied Ford’s allegation and said he wanted to testify as soon as possible to clear his name.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in her legal fight with President Donald Trump, inserted himself into the maelstrom Sunday night when he claimed to represent a woman with information about high schoolera parties attended by Kavanaugh and urged the Senate to investigate. Avenatti told The Associated Press that he will disclose his client’s identity in the coming days and that she is prepared to testify before the committee, as well as provide names of corroborating witnesses.
Grassley, RIowa, wrangled with Ford’s lawyers for the last week over the exact terms of her appearance. She made several requests, some of which were accommodated — a Thursday hearing, three days later than originally scheduled, and a smaller hearing room with less press access to avoid a media circus, for example. Grassley’s staff also agreed to let Ford testify without Kavanaugh in the room, for there to be only one camera in the room, “adequate” breaks and a high security presence.
The committee said it would not negotiate on other points, though, including Ford’s desire for additional witnesses and a request to testify after, not before, Kavanaugh.
“As with any witness who comes before the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Committee cannot hand over its constitutional duties to attorneys for outside witnesses,” Mike Davis, Grassley’s top nominations counsel, wrote in an email exchange with Ford’s lawyers obtained by The Associated Press. “The committee determines which witnesses to call, how many witnesses to call, in what order to call them, and who will question them. These are nonnegotiable.”
Ford’s lawyers said it was still unclear who will ask questions, as Republicans were trying to hire an outside female counsel who could take over the questioning. The 11 senators on the GOP side of the dais are all men, which could send an unwanted message on live television against the backdrop of the #MeToo era. They could also use Republican staff attorneys on the committee.
Democratic senators were expected to ask their own questions.
As he builds a case for his innocence, Kavanaugh plans to turn over to the committee calendars from the summer of 1982 that don’t show a party consistent with Ford’s description of the gathering in which she says he attacked her, The New York Times reported Sunday. The newspaper reported that it had examined the calendars and noted they list basketball games, movie outings, football workouts, college interviews, and a few parties with names of friends other than those identified by Ford.
A person working on Kavanaugh’s confirmation confirmed the Times account to The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.