New Kavanaugh Accuser Says Nominee Abetted Gang-Rape, Groped Girls, and Spiked Punch With Drugs at High-School Parties
The allegations were released on Twitter this morning by lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is asking for an FBI investigation.
A woman who allegedly partied with Judge Brett Kavanaugh as a teenager has come forward with serious allegations about him and his former classmate Mark Judge. According to the sworn declaration from Julie Swetnick, both Kavanaugh and Judge abetted the drugging and gang-raping of girls at parties in the early 1980s. Swetnick also implies that Kavanaugh and Judge participated in the assaults themselves.
As Georgetown Prep students, both Judge and Kavanaugh were known to "'spike' the 'punch' at house parties" with "drugs and/or grain alcohol so as to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say 'No,'" Swetnick says in the declaration, which was released on Twitter this morning by lawyer and recent TV news fixture Michael Avenatti.
Swetnick says she "witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh, and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could be 'gang raped' in a side room or bedroom by a 'train' of numerous boys" and that she has "a firm recollection of boys being lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their 'turn' with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh."
Around 1982, Swetnick states, she herself was a victim "of one of these 'gang' or 'train' rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present." (It is unclear whether she is saying that Kavanaugh or Judge personally assaulted her.) She adds that she believes she was drugged via Quaaludes dropped into her drink.
Kavanaugh called Swetnick's claims "ridiculous" and "from the Twilight Zone," adding that he doesn't know who Swetnick is and "this never happened."
NEW / from Judge Kavanaugh, via White House, on latest accusation: "This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don't know who this is and this never happened."
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) September 26, 2018
Swetnick says she told others about the incident at the time and knows of other witnesses who can confirm her statements.
"We demand an immediate FBI investigation into the allegations," Avenatti tweeted this morning. "Under no circumstances should Brett Kavanaugh be confirmed absent a full and complete investigation."
Swetnick—a graduate of Gaithersburg High School in Maryland and a former employee of the Department of Defense, the U.S. Mint, the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. State Department, with several active security clearances—says she first met Kavanaugh and Judge in 1980 or 1981 at a house party. She describes the pair as "joined at the hip" and says she "consistently saw them together in many social settings." She estimates that she attended "well over ten house parties" from 1981 to 1983 where both were present.
Avenatti is on The View right now and was asked if his client is accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault on her.
Avenatti dodges and doesn't answer the question.
— Andrew Kugle (@AndrewJKugle) September 26, 2018
"On numerous occasions at the parties, I witnessed Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh drink excessively and engage in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking 'no' or an answer" as well as "fondling and grabbing girls without their consent," Swetnick says in the declaration. She continues:
I observed Brett Kavanaugh drink excessively at many of these parties and engage in abusive and physical aggressive behavior toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent, "grinding" against girls, and attempting to remove or shift girls' clothing to expose private body parts. I likewise observed him be verbally abusive toward girls by making crude sexual comments to them that were designed to demean, humiliate, and embarrass them.
After calling Kavanaugh a "mean drunk," Swetnick says that she not only witnessed this behavior herself but heard about it from other women and that his claims in a recent Fox News interview about being virginal and mostly sober during his high school years are "absolutely false and a lie."
Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford—the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexually predatory behavior in high school—are both scheduled to be questioned before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow.
On Wednesday afternoon, President Trump commented on the latest allegations against Kavanaugh, tweeting:
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. He is just looking for attention and doesn't want people to look at his past record and relationships - a total low-life!
This post was updated to add responses from Brett Kavanaugh and from President Trump.