Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer have released a report in the New Yorker from a second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct — and this time it includes a dildo.
The 53-year-old accuser Deborah Ramirez told the New Yorker that she was initially hesitant to speak out because she was drunk at the time and her memory had gaps. She spent six days “carefully assessing her memories” and consulting with her attorney before going public.
Ramirez is also calling for an FBI investigation.
The New Yorker reports:
Ramirez said that, when both she and Kavanaugh were freshmen at Yale, she was invited by a friend on the women’s soccer team to a dorm-room party. She recalled that the party took place in a suite at Lawrance Hall, in the part of Yale known as the Old Campus, and that a small group of students decided to play a drinking game together. “We were sitting in a circle,” she said. “People would pick who drank.” Ramirez was chosen repeatedly, she said, and quickly became inebriated. At one point, she said, a male student pointed a gag plastic penis in her direction. Later, she said, she was on the floor, foggy and slurring her words as that male student and another stood nearby. (Ramirez identified the two male onlookers, but, at her request, The New Yorker is not naming them.)
A third male student then exposed himself to her. “I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she said. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.” She recalled remarking, “That’s not a real penis,” and the other students laughing at her confusion and taunting her, one encouraging her to “kiss it.” She said that she pushed the person away, touching it in the process. Ramirez, who was raised a devout Catholic in Connecticut, said that she was shaken. “I wasn’t going to touch a penis until I was married,” she said. “I was embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated.” She remembers Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing, pulling up his pants. “Brett was laughing,” she said. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” She recalled another male student shouting about the incident. “Somebody yelled down the hall, ‘Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face,’ ” she said. “It was his full name. I don’t think it was just ‘Brett.’ And I remember hearing and being mortified that this was out there.”
Kavanaugh was eighteen when the alleged incident took place. The New Yorker reports that they reached out to “dozens” of classmates and “many did not respond to interview requests; others declined to comment, or said they did not attend or remember the party.” One recalled being told about the incident within days of it happening.
“The New Yorker has not confirmed with other eyewitnesses that Kavanaugh was present at the party,” the report states.
Still, Ramirez admits that her memory is very foggy from drinking heavily.
One of the people Ramirez has accused of egging on Kavanaugh said that they had no memory of the party.
“I don’t think Brett would flash himself to Debbie, or anyone, for that matter,” the accused said.
Two of the male classmates who Ramirez alleged were involved the incident, the wife of a third male student she said was involved, and three other classmates all signed a statement to the New Yorker denying the incident took place.
The statement read:
“We were the people closest to Brett Kavanaugh during his first year at Yale. He was a roommate to some of us, and we spent a great deal of time with him, including in the dorm where this incident allegedly took place. Some of us were also friends with Debbie Ramirez during and after her time at Yale. We can say with confidence that if the incident Debbie alleges ever occurred, we would have seen or heard about it—and we did not. The behavior she describes would be completely out of character for Brett. In addition, some of us knew Debbie long after Yale, and she never described this incident until Brett’s Supreme Court nomination was pending. Editors from the New Yorker contacted some of us because we are the people who would know the truth, and we told them that we never saw or heard about this.”
Ramirez is a registered Democrat, but denies any political motivation for just now coming forward about the incident that is alleged to have taken place in the 80s.
On Sunday afternoon, New York Magazine reporter Yashar Ali tweeted that two of his sources in the White House were aware of the story prior to it being published.
From the Drudge Report. This has been brewing all day with several rumors going around about a potential story. I won’t share them now.
Two White House sources have confirmed to me that they are aware of a potential story. pic.twitter.com/MhnCTiraxQ
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 23, 2018
Ramirez’ story comes as the first accuser’s allegations began to crumble. Three people that were named as witnesses by accuser Christine Ford have all denied any knowledge of the incident. Leland Ingham Keyser, a longtime friend of Ford who was said to have been at the party denied ever being at a party with Kavanaugh at all.
“Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford,” Keyser’s lawyer said in a statement.
Another former classmate who Ford had named, Patrick J. Smyth, said that “I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh.” The letter, sent by his lawyer to the Judiciary Committee, also included a glowing endorsement of Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Ford is supposed to testify before Congress on Thursday.
