Man Behind Bizarre Kavanaugh Assault Theory Takes Leave Of Absence From Right Wing “Ethics” Group

From the right wing Ethics & Public Policy Center:

The board of the Ethics and Public Policy Center convened a special telephonic meeting on Friday, September 21, 2018. After the meeting, Edward Whelan, who has led EPPC with integrity and excellence for many years, offered his resignation in light of what he described as an “appalling and inexcusable” error in posting online a series of comments that he has now deleted and for which he promptly publicly apologized. After deliberation, the board declined to accept Mr. Whelan’s resignation, but determined that he will take a leave of absence from the organization during which time Yuval Levin, EPPC’s Vice President and Hertog Fellow, will be in charge. The board will meet in a month to review the situation.

The Huffington Post reports:

In a series of tweets Thursday, Ed Whelan presented a bizarre theory on Twitter that accuser Christine Blasey Ford was not sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when the two were high school students, as she alleged. Instead, he suggested she may have been attacked by a classmate of Kavanaugh’s who looked very much like him. Whelan named the man and posted a photo of him in his tweet thread. Realizing too late that he had linked the man to a crime, he apologized profusely on Friday, calling it an “appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment,” and deleted the tweets.

Many have speculated that Whelan faces a massive lawsuit. Over the weekend it was revealed that Whelan’s bizarre story was concocted with the aid of the right wing PR firm that was also behind the “Swift Boat” attack on John Kerry.