President Donald Trump charged that attorney Michael Avenatti is making false accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in a bid to seek attention, hours after Avenatti revealed the identity of a third woman who has come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh.
“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 wrote on Twitter on Sept. 26. “He is just looking for attention and doesn’t want people to look at his past record and relationships - a total low-life!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1044991766309621760
Avenatti shared a sworn statement by Julie Swetnick on the morning of Sept. 26. Avenatti didn’t immediately respond to a request for witnesses and evidence to corroborate the claims. The Epoch Times wasn’t immediately able to verify the claims and is refraining from publishing the details.
Kavanaugh denied the allegations in a statement issued by the White House.
“This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone,“ Kavanaugh said. ”I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”
The judge also denied the allegations when they first surfaced under penalty of perjury before the committee.
The third accuser came forward one day before Kavanaugh and the first woman to accuse him, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, are set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. All of the witnesses who Ford said were present during the alleged incident have denied knowledge of the event.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is conducting Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, said the Kavanaugh-Ford hearing will go forward as planned.
“I feel like I have a definite responsibility to hold the hearing, not only for her but for Judge Kavanaugh,” Grassley told reporters.
Grassley didn’t deny the possibility of another hearing. As of the afternoon on Sept. 26, the committee had a vote scheduled to recommend Kavanaugh for confirmation by the full Senate.
Avenatti is also the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the stripper and pornography performer who claims to have had an affair with the president.
A spokesman for Grassley told The Epoch Times that the committee received the Avenatti declaration on the morning of Sept. 26 and is in the process of reviewing it.
Kavanaugh also responded to some of Swetnick’s allegations in an interview alongside his wife on Fox News. Swetnick’s identity wasn’t yet known at the time of the interview.
“That’s totally false and outrageous. I’ve never done any such thing, known about any such thing,” Kavanaugh said, adding that he went to an all-boys Catholic high school and focused on academics and athletics.
The judge said there were parties where people sometimes had too much to drink.
“I think all of us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit, but that’s not what we’re talking about,” Kavanaugh said.
“We’re talking about an allegation of sexual assault. I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.”
Swetnick’s allegation is the latest development in a heated battle over the confirmation of Trump’s nominee to the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Republicans accuse Democrats of withholding the allegations against Kavanaugh until after the confirmation hearings, with the goal of either delaying the vote until the midterm elections in early November or derailing the nomination altogether.
The addition of Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would ensure a conservative majority on the high court for years to come.
Another woman, Deborah Ramirez, has accused Kavanaugh of misconduct. Despite interviewing dozens of potential witnesses, The New Yorker magazine couldn’t find anyone to directly corroborate Ramirez’s account.
A vote on confirmation in the full Senate could happen as early as Oct. 2, according to senior Senate Republicans. The Supreme Court’s term begins, by statute, on the first Monday in October.
