Farrow: ‘Not accurate’ to say those who knew Kavanaugh in college dispute latest accusation
The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow said Monday that a new report in which a former college classmate of Brett Kavanaugh accused the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct met a high evidentiary bar.
Farrow on “Good Morning America” disputed the claim that all those who know Kavanaugh have refuted Deborah Ramirez’s claim that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a college party and noted that her hesitance to come forward is common among survivors of sexual abuse.
“It is not accurate to say those who knew him at the time dispute this,” Farrow said. “We talked to a roommate from the time that was living with him when this alleged incident took place who said he was frequently drunk, that he took part in activity that made him unsurprised by this claim and that he found this woman credible.”
FULL INTERVIEW: @ronanfarrow on the bombshell new allegations from former Yale classmate against Brett Kavanaugh: “It is not accurate to say that those who knew him at the time dispute this.” https://t.co/BbURHAQ6EE pic.twitter.com/pUznAxDdfC
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 24, 2018
Kavanaugh has denied the allegation, and the report includes denials from multiple friends of the judge who claim they were at the party where the alleged incident took place.
{mosads}Ramirez acknowledged to the magazine that she was inebriated at the time of the incident, but expressed confidence it took place after carefully considering it with her attorney.
“We wouldn’t have run this if we didn’t have a careful basis of people who had heard at the time and found her credible,” Farrow, who authored the report with colleague Jane Mayer, said Monday, noting thatRamirez didn’t plan to come forward until Senate Democrats began looking into the incident.
“She came forward because Senate Democrats began looking at this claim. She did not flag this for those Democrats. This came to the attention of people on the Hill independently and it’s really cornered her into an awkward position,” he said. “That’s why she took time to think about this carefully. She said, point blank, ‘I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life.’ But she feels this is a serious claim. She considers her own memories credible and she felt that it was important that she tell her own story, before others did without her consent.”
He added that this “is not the behavior of someone who is fabricating something.”
Ramirez’s allegation threatens to further imperil Kavanaugh’s nomination. The judge was accused earlier this month of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford at a high school party in the 1980s, a claim he also denies.
Ford and Kavanaugh are scheduled to testify about that incident on Thursday, but Senate Democrats have called for the hearing to be postponed in light of The New Yorker report.
–This report was updated at 11:45 a.m.
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