The New Yorker hit piece on Brett Kavanaugh published Sunday night accusing Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, without corroboration, of exposing himself to a female Yale classmate at a drunken dorm party in the 1980s was met with skepticism by the New York Times and ABC News. (UPDATE: CBS News, also. At end.)
Kavanaugh accuser Deborah Ramirez.
The Times reported, but buried, that it had spent a week investing the accusation by Deborah Ramirez but was unable to find an eyewitness and that Ramirez had recently told several of her classmates she wasn’t sure it was Kavanaugh.
Judge Kavanaugh’s prospects were further clouded on Sunday when The New Yorker reported on a new allegation of sexual impropriety: A woman who went to Yale with Judge Kavanaugh said that, during a drunken dormitory party their freshman year, he exposed himself to her, thrust his penis into her face and caused her to touch it without her consent.
In a statement, Judge Kavanaugh denied the allegation from the woman, Deborah Ramirez, and called it “a smear, plain and simple.” The New Yorker did not confirm with other eyewitnesses that Judge Kavanaugh was at the party.
The Times had interviewed several dozen people over the past week in an attempt to corroborate her story, and could find no one with firsthand knowledge. Ms. Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the incident and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself.
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos repeatedly challenged Ronan Farrow, who co-authored the New Yorker article with Jane Mayer, in an interview Monday on Good Morning America. Farrow was forced to admit he had no eyewitnesses but he insisted that people who knew Kavanaugh at Yale said it was “possible.”
Farrow closed the interview by claiming accuser Ramirez insisted she wants to be “fair” to Brett Kavanaugh.
FULL INTERVIEW: @ronanfarrow on the bombshell new allegations from former Yale classmate against Brett Kavanaugh: “It is not accurate to say that those who knew him at the time dispute this.” https://t.co/BbURHAQ6EE pic.twitter.com/pUznAxDdfC
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 24, 2018
CBS News also challenged co-author Jane Mayer on the lack of eyewitnesses.
Where did the corroborating witness get the information from? –@JDickerson
“He remembers it from–he was in the same dorm .. and he remembers it clearly” –@JaneMayerNYer
But did he see it? –@JDickerson
“No. As I’ve said, he heard it from someone who was there.” –@JaneMayerNYer pic.twitter.com/h9dxDiPJeX
— Norah O'Donnell 🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) September 24, 2018
