Shocking New Allegations Against Kavanaugh Spark Outrage
After Michael Avenatti revealed his client accusing SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh of being involved in a “gang rape” in high school, pundits and other figures exploded on Twitter with calls to drop the nomination.
Julie Swetnick, Avaenatti’s client, claims that these incidents occurred more than once and that she was a “victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present.”
“During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me,” Swetnick wrote in a sworn affidavit. “I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.”
Swetnick said that she went to high school in the D.C. area during the same time that Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge were attending Georgetown Prep. Judge is a particularly important name in the allegation, as he was accused by the nominee’s first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, of witnessing Kavanaugh’s attempts at sexual assault.
Additionally, in an interview with the New Yorker, Judge’s ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Rasor said she recalls him telling her about a time he and other young men turn turns having sex with the same drunk girl.
As for Swetnick’s allegations, they are particularly risky for her to make, as her job requires her to hold a security, so if she is caught in perjury, her career would essentially be over.
The White House has denied the claims though, calling them “ridiculous” and something “from the Twilight Zone.”
Many on Twitter reacted with increasingly loud calls to remove Kavanaugh from the nomination process and to conduct FBI investigations into the matter. Others chimed in with calls for Swetnick to get a new attorney, since Avenatti is seen by many in the media world as being an unreliable opportunist:
I believe Julie Swetnick. What she describes squares with what Mark Judge “ashamedly” told his ex-gf (per the NYer) pic.twitter.com/WlrgNkH6RI
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) September 26, 2018
Note that Julie Swetnick currently holds a security clearance and attests to these allegations under penalty of perjury. That means she would be throwing away her entire career if she were knowingly making up these allegations. https://t.co/ASbtowyiTN
— Daniel Jacobson (@Dan_F_Jacobson) September 26, 2018
If anyone knows Julie Swetnick, they should tell her that she could get another attorney. (I mean this seriously.)
— Leah Litman (@LeahLitman) September 26, 2018
Avenatti’s client Julie Swetnick says she observed Kavanaugh as a “mean drunk” harassing women at parties, including at “Beach Week” in Maryland.
The 1982 calendar he released today indicates he was at Beach Week. pic.twitter.com/NgJJ4CwE6d
— David Mack (@davidmackau) September 26, 2018
It’s unconscionable for Senate to vote on Kavanaugh without FBI investigation & hearing from Mark Judge, Deborah Ramirez & Julie Swetnick
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) September 26, 2018
I believe Julie Swetnick and she should never have had to come forward since one woman reliving her trauma should be more than sufficient to withdraw a nominee who was already considered too extreme and a liar. I repeat: withdraw your nominee immediately. #BelieveSurvivors https://t.co/NSzvR0w0q7
— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) September 26, 2018
We believe you, Julie Swetnick. Thank you for bravely coming forward, putting it all on the line to tell the truth about who Brett Kavanaugh truly is. We can’t keep rewarding abusers with more power. #CancelKavanaugh #BelieveSurvivorshttps://t.co/KrKYdOpVwA
— Women’s March (@womensmarch) September 26, 2018
However, conservative commentators pushed back on the allegations, with many suggesting Swetnick’s story is not believable:
To review the Avenatti claim: a woman claims that when she was a college aged adult (graduated high school in 1980), she went to high school parties where high school girls were drugged and raped and she, as the adult present, did nothing but avoid the punch.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 26, 2018
Please someone help me with this.
Georgetown Prep boys frequently committed gang rape.
Lots of people knew they were committing gang rape.
And despite this common knowledge no one has talked publicly for three decades, until the day before a crucial Senate hearing.
What?
— David French (@DavidAFrench) September 26, 2018
How about…”no.”
I didn’t like Kavanaugh as the nominee — frankly, he was too milquetoast — but now, I’ve been radicalized. This has gone so far off the rails, it’s embarrassing. https://t.co/sdXHbfapKe
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) September 26, 2018
So #JulieSwetnick says she attended high school parties for 2-3 years as a college student, after she *repeatedly* saw boys at those parties lining up to rape incapacitated girls?
That… does not strike me as convincing. (And I’m the same age)https://t.co/0beLfa5vb2
— Cathy Young (@CathyYoung63) September 26, 2018
When Amy Coney Barrett is nominates to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Avenatti will reveal she was the Judas goat who led the girls into Kavanaugh’s rape gang train.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 26, 2018
[image via screengrab]
