Ronan Farrow and Jane Meyer report at The New Yorker:
As Senate Republicans press for a swift vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. The claim dates to the 1983-84 academic school year, when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale University.
The offices of at least four Democratic senators have received information about the allegation, and at least two have begun investigating it. Senior Republican staffers also learned of the allegation last week and, in conversations with The New Yorker, expressed concern about its potential impact on Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Soon after, Senate Republicans issued renewed calls to accelerate the timing of a committee vote. The Democratic Senate offices reviewing the allegations believe that they merit further investigation. “
The Los Angeles Times reports:
The White House and Brett Kavanaugh issued swift denials Sunday night after an explosive new account emerged of alleged sexual misconduct by the Supreme Court nominee when he was in college, adding greater disarray to a nomination already sullied by an earlier charge of sexual abuse. The new allegations, reported by the New Yorker, date back to Kavanaugh’s freshman year at Yale University, when a classmate named Deborah Ramirez says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at close range at a drunken dormitory party, forcing her to bat him away.
“This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple,” the federal appeals court judge said in a statement, adding that he intended to defend himself at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday. In a separate statement, a White House spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, called the latest allegation a Democratic-inspired effort to “tear down a good man” and said the White House “stands firmly” behind Kavanaugh’s nomination.
JUST IN: Senate Judiciary Cmte. Ranking Member Feinstein calls for “an immediate postponement of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination,” and for the FBI to investigate new allegation – @frankthorp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 24, 2018
JUST IN: President Trump had two conversations today about the latest Kavanaugh allegation before it became public tonight, according to a source familiar with the confirmation process, and the president expressed no change in his views about Kavanaugh – @PeterAlexander pic.twitter.com/rh9XUOMiBV
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 24, 2018
So the @DRUDGE_REPORT is reporting that there’s a second Kavanaugh accuser. Let’s hope they’re aren’t 16 of them because then we have to make Kavanaugh president. It’s just math.
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 23, 2018