Brett Kavanaugh forcefully denies sexual assault allegation
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh delivers opening statement before Senate Judiciary Committee.
Following a passionate — and at times tearful — opening statement, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh adamantly defended himself against all sexual misconduct allegations, including those brought forward by Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick. Ford was the only one to testify in the hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.
During the hearing, Kavanaugh emphasized he wished no "ill will" against Ford or her family, though he stressed to the committee that his family has been completely "destroyed" by the accusations.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a ranking member on the Judiciary Committee who first received a letter from Ford detailing the alleged incident which she claimed took place at a house party in the early 1980s, told Kavanaugh these are "difficult" circumstances. Again, the California senator called for an FBI investigation.
"What you're saying, if I understand it, is that the allegations by Dr. Ford, Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Swetnick are wrong?" Feinstein asked Kavanaugh during the hearing after he declared he was "all in" when it comes to clearing his name.
"That is emphatically what I'm saying — emphatically," he replied. "The Swetnick thing is a joke. That is a farce."
Feinstein then asked if Kavanaugh wanted to elaborate on his comments about Swetnick's accusations.
Shaking his head, Kavanaugh spoke into the mic and said "no."
Swetnick, the third woman to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, said in a sworn statement the judge was “verbally abusive toward girls,” a “mean drunk” and would “spike” the “punch” at high school house parties. Swetnick adds that she remembers seeing Kavanaugh and other boys lined up outside a room at a party waiting for their “turn” with an inebriated girl.
KAVANAUGH CHOKES UP WHILE DISCUSSING FAMILY'S RESPONSE TO SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS
“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present,” Swetnick says in her statement, though she didn't explicitly accuse Kavanaugh of assaulting her. “During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.”
In a Fox News interview Monday about the claim he and Judge had plied women with drugs and alcohol at parties to help facilitate "gang rapes," Kavanaugh stated it was "totally false," adding he never did "any such thing."
The Associated Press and Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
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