Top Falsehoods By Judge Kavanaugh Before The Judiciary Committee On 9.27.18
Kavanaugh’s Claim: Kavanaugh claimed that the FBI has already investigated his background, pointing to the fact that he has had six background investigations for prior jobs.
§ Judge Kavanaugh: “For the last 26 years, since 1992, I have served in many high profile and sensitive government positions for which the FBI has investigated my background six separate times. Six separate FBI background investigations over 26 years. All of them after the event alleged here. I have been in the public arena and under extreme public scrutiny for decades.”
Reality: The fact that the FBI conducted standard background investigations on Kavanaugh does not mean that the FBI has adequately investigated Dr. Ford’s allegations and other allegations against him.
§ In fact, despite repeated requests from Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee, the FBI refused to reopen Kavanaugh’s background investigation file or conduct any subsequent interviews with Dr. Ford or others.
§ Further, it is standard practice for the FBI to reopen files, and the FBI has done so more than a dozen times in the last three months alone. FBI background checks also do not typically cover the time before the subject is less than 18 years old, unless there is reason to do so, as there is now.
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Kavanaugh’s Claim: Judge Kavanaugh’s central defense is that all four witnesses Dr. Ford identified as being present at the party have said that the sexual assault “did not happen.”
§ Judge Kavanaugh: “Just on one thing, Mr. Chairman – the evidence is not corroborated at the time. The witnesses who were there say that it didn’t happen.”
Reality: This is not true. Only one person has said that the sexual assault did not happen—Brett Kavanaugh. The other three party attendees that Dr. Ford identified simply did not say that.
§ Mark Judge said “I have no memory of this alleged incident.” In a letter yesterday, Judge said “I do not recall the events described by Dr. Ford.”
§ P.J. Smyth said “I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct.”
§ Leyland Keyser said that she has “no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without Dr. Ford” but that she believes Dr. Ford.
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Kavanaugh’s Claim: Judge Kavanaugh repeatedly has said that he has never in his life had so much to drink that he didn’t remember something. Kavanaugh also denied ever becoming aggressive when he drinks.
§ Judge Kavanaugh: “I liked beer. I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone.”
Reality: Numerous people who spent considerable time with Kavanaugh during his high school, college, and law school years have confirmed that Kavanaugh frequently drank in excess and sometimes became belligerent.
§ While working in the Bush White House, in an email after a weekend with law school classmates, Kavanaugh wrote: “Excellent time. Apologies to all for missing Friday (good excuse), arriving late Saturday (weak excuse), and growing aggressive after blowing still another game of dice (don’t recall). Reminders to everyone to be very, very vigilant w/r/t confidentiality on all issues and all fronts, including with spouses.” (REV_00022890).
§ Dr. Elizabeth Swisher, Kavanaugh’s friend at Yale, said: “Brett was a sloppy drunk, and I know because I drank with him. I watched him drink more than a lot of people. He’d end up slurring his words, stumbling.” … “But it’s not credible for him to say that he has had no memory lapses in the nights that he drank to excess.”
§ James Roche, Kavanaugh's freshman roommate at Yale, said “although Brett was normally reserved, he was a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk. I did not observe the specific incident in question, but I do remember Brett frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk."
§ Lynn Brookes, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, said last night “there is no doubt in my mind that while at Yale, he was a big partier, often drank to excess and there had to be a number of nights where he does not remember.”
§ Kit Winter, Kavanaugh’s other freshman roommate at Yale, says that Kavanaugh and his friends were “loud, obnoxious frat boy-like drunks,” who were the “hardest drinkers on campus.”
§ Another Yale Classmate who wishes to remain anonymous said that “she had frequently been drunk with him at parties. She hadn’t seen him become belligerent, she said — instead, he could often be found slumped over, asleep, during and after parties.” “ ‘He drank a lot — he wasn’t falling asleep reading a book … I would suggest that very few people in the ’80s in the circles we were in did not sometimes go’ to the point of being blacked out.”
§ Kavanaugh’s good friend Mark Judge describes a man named “Bart O’Kavanaugh,” who “puked in someone’s car the other night” and “passed out on his way back from a party.” (Judge, Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Alcoholic, at 52).
§ Kavanaugh himself recounted a story of “falling out of the bus onto the front steps of Yale Law School at about 4:45 a.m.” He continued: “Indeed, as a classmate of mine and I were reminiscing and piecing things together the other day, we think we had more than a few beers before the banquet.” [Kavanaugh, Remarks at Yale Law School Federalist Society Banquet, 4/23/14]
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Kavanaugh’s Claim: Judge Kavanaugh claimed that he has always treated women “as friends and equals” and “with dignity and respect.”
Reality: Judge Kavanaugh’s time in high school and college paints a very different picture.
§ Kavanaugh’s yearbook page contains an entry that reads “Renate Alumnius.” This entry also appears on Mark Judge’s page, on the pages of Kavanaugh and Judge’s football teammates, and in several other places in the yearbook. “Renate” refers to Renate Schroeder Dolphin, who attended a nearby girls’ Catholic school. According to the New York Times, “Two of Judge Kavanaugh’s classmates say the mentions of Renate were part of the football players’ unsubstantiated boasting about their conquests.” Ms. Dolphin, who signed a letter of support for Kavanaugh along with 64 other women earlier this month, was unaware of these yearbook entries, and told the Times that “the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way.” [NYT, 9/24/18]
§ Kavanaugh’s yearbook page also includes the following other possible references to sex and women: “Judge – Have You Boofed Yet?”; “Devil’s Triangle”; “Wendy Whitney Fan Club”; and “Maureen – Tainted Whack.”
o According to the New York Times, “what he [Kavanaugh] just said about the meanings of ‘boofed’ and ‘Devil's Triangle’ is not true.”
§ During his time at Yale, Kavanaugh was a member of the “Truth and Courage” secret society, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity, both of which had reputations for heavy drinking and poor treatment of women.
§ One woman who graduated from Yale explained that while “[o]ther societies were looking for a prestigious family background, or your GPA,” Truth and Courage was “organized around having sex with coeds.” [BuzzFeed, 7/11/18]
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Kavanaugh’s Claim: Judge Kavanaugh claimed that he and Dr. Ford “did not travel in the same social circles.”
§ Judge Kavanaugh: “Dr. Ford did not attend one of those schools. She attended an independent private school named Holton-Arms and she was a year behind me. She and I did not travel in the same social circles.”
Reality: Judge Kavanaugh himself confirmed that Holton Arms students were likely at some of his social gatherings.
§ In a September 17, 2018 interview with Committee staff, Kavanaugh said regarding his high school social life: “I would imagine that there were Holton Arms girls there on occasion and I was friends with a couple.”
§ During Dr. Ford’s appearance before the Committee, she testified that she dated Chris Garrett — the same “Squi” referenced by Kavanaugh in his calendar — and that is how Ford came to meet Kavanaugh.
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Kavanaugh’s Claim: Kavanaugh claimed that polygraphs are not reliable.
§ Judge Kavanaugh: “They’re not admissible in federal court because they’re not reliable, as you know.”
Reality: As a judge on the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has ruled otherwise — finding that polygraphs are in fact reliable.
§ In a 2016 case, Kavanaugh wrote: “As the Government notes, law enforcement agencies use polygraphs to test the credibility of witnesses and criminal defendants. Those agencies also use polygraphs to ‘screen applicants for security clearances so that they may be deemed suitable for work in critical law enforcement, defense, and intelligence collection roles.’ . . . The Government has satisfactorily explained how polygraph examinations serve law enforcement purposes.” (Sack v. United States Department of Defense, 823 F.3d 687 (2016))
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Kavanaugh’s Claim: Judge Kavanaugh suggested that he did not drink on weeknights.
§ Judge Kavanaugh: “The event described by Dr. Ford, presumably happened on a weekend because I believed everyone worked and had jobs in the summers. And in any event, a drunken early evening event of the kind she describes, presumably happened on a weekend.”
Reality: According to Brett Kavanaugh’s calendar from 1982, on July 1 — a Thursday — Kavanaugh wrote “Go to Timmy’s for Skis w/ Judge, Tom, Pj, Bernie, Squi.”
§ BOOKER: I'm -- I'm talking about the calendars that you provided during these dates.
KAVANAUGH: Oh, that's in the -- in the summer after a football work out when we went over to...
BOOKER: You drank on weekdays, yes or no, sir?
KAVANAUGH: ... In the summer when we went over to Timmy's house (ph) on July 1st, that would indicate, yes.
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