Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh: The allegations
Christine Blasey Ford has publicly accused Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago. A look at what she is saying and how top lawmakers are responding.
Allegations of past sexual misconduct nearly derailed Brett Kavanaugh’s ascent to the Supreme Court bench.
While multiple women publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexually inappropriate behavior — mainly occurring at parties in high school or college — only one testified before lawmakers after they pushed back a scheduled confirmation vote: Christine Blasey Ford.
After a highly emotional hearing, with testimonies from both Kavanaugh and Ford, the judge was sworn in as the 114th Supreme Court justice in October.
Kavanaugh vehemently denied all of the sexual misconduct accusations made against him.
Months after they came forward with their allegations, here’s a look at where the women are today.
Christine Blasey Ford
Christine Blasey Ford testified before lawmakers regarding her claims Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school. Kavanaugh vehemently and emotionally denied the allegations. (AP Photo)
Since psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford testified before lawmakers, she has mostly remained out of the limelight — with just a few exceptions.
In December, Ford introduced Rachael Denhollander in a video message before the lawyer and former gymnast was presented with Sports Illustrated’s Inspiration of the Year award. Denhollander was the first woman who came forward to accuse former sports doctor Larry Nassar of sexual assault.
“Rachael Denhollander, I am in awe of you, and I will always be inspired by you,” Ford said. “In stepping forward, you took a huge risk, and you galvanized future generations to come forward, even when the odds are seemingly stacked against them.”
A month earlier, Ford announced she used money raised from a GoFundMe account set up on her behalf to pay for security for herself and her family. The money was used “to take reasonable steps to protect ourselves against frightening threats, including physical protection and security for me and my family, and to enhance the security for our home.”
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It was used for housing while the family was displaced from their home as well as a security system.
The account raised $647,610 before it was shuttered to further donations. Any leftover money will be donated to “organizations that support trauma survivors," which are yet to be determined, Ford said.
Ford had accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed during a house party in the early 1980s, when she was 15 and he was 17. She said he attempted to remove her clothes and prevented her from screaming for help.
Julie Swetnick
Julie Swetnick and her attorney Michael Avenatti were referred for a criminal investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman following her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. (Michael Avenatti via AP)
Along with her attorney, Julie Swetnick was referred to federal officials for criminal investigation regarding a potential “conspiracy” to provide false statements to Congress and obstruct its investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations levied against Kavanaugh.
Swetnick had said in a sworn declaration that she witnessed Kavanaugh and his friend “drink excessively and engage in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking ‘No’ for an answer. This conduct included the fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent.”
Kavanaugh denied her claims and maintains he does not know who Swetnick is.
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Swetnick and attorney Michael Avenatti — who also represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Trump — provided “simply no credible evidence that Ms. Swetnick ever even met or socialized with Judge Kavanaugh,” according to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, who added “there is substantial evidence they did not know each other.”
After coming forward with her allegations, Swetnick blasted the media and politicians as she said she was “revictimized.” She said the president and several Republican senators “never really wanted to get to the truth.”
Pointing to inconsistencies in her allegations, Grassley referred the pair to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray in October. She's mostly stayed out of the public eye since.
Deborah Ramirez
Deborah Ramirez reportedly went forward with her allegations of sexual misconduct after reporters began to call her and show up at her house. (Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence via AP)
Since she publicly came forward with her own sexual misconduct allegations regarding Kavanaugh, Deborah Ramirez has quietly attempted to return to her everyday life in Colorado, according to the Denver Post.
Ramirez had accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her while at a Yale University dormitory party during the 1983-84 academic year. She admitted to having gaps in her memory about the party since she had been drinking but said she remembered inadvertently touching Kavanaugh’s penis while trying to shove him away from her.
Kavanaugh denied the allegation, calling it a “smear, plain and simple.”
The Denver Post noted Ramirez has stayed away from doing media interviews after she made the allegations. A volunteer coordinator for Boulder County, she never needed to vacate her home in the aftermath, according to the newspaper.
At the time of the October Denver Post report, Ramirez was beginning to feel comfortable enough to leave her house and run errands, attorney John Clune said.
“It’ll take a little while to adjust back to regular life. It will be a process for her,” Clune added.
He said her attorneys and a domestic violence support organization, where she sits on the board, have been on the receiving end of many threatening messages since she came forward. But Ramirez received many handwritten cards offering support in the aftermath.
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Clune stressed Ramirez did not want to come forward, but reporters began to call and show up at her home.
“Her goal wasn’t to keep [Kavanaugh] off the bench. Her goal was to tell about what her experience was with him and to make sure that information got to the right places. She felt that she did that,” Clune said.
Judy Munro-Leighton
Aside from Swetnick, Senate Republicans also referred two other people who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, including Judy Munro-Leighton.
Munro-Leighton claimed she wrote an anonymous letter alleging Kavanaugh and a friend “raped her ‘several times each’ in the backseat of a car,” according to Grassley’s office.
“Under questioning by Committee investigators, Ms. Munro-Leighton admitted, contrary to her prior claims, that she had not been sexually assaulted by … Kavanaugh and was not the author of the original ‘Jane Doe’ letter,” Grassley’s office said. She reportedly told the committee she was aware of the anonymous letter sent to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., but was not the author of it.
Grassley’s office also noted Munro-Leighton is a “left-wing activist” from Kentucky who is “decades older” than Kavanaugh.
Additionally, a Rhode Island man who initially claimed Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman on a boat in Newport in 1985 was referred to the Justice Department. He ultimately recanted his accusation.
Fox News' Matt Richardson and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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