President Donald Trump called on his Justice Department Sunday to “rescue” Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after The New York Times published an excerpt of a new book detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh that he has previously denied.
The excerpt from “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” written by Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, revisits an allegation raised during the Supreme Court justice’s confirmation process in 2018. That allegation from Deborah Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a party when he was a freshman at Yale, according to an account published in The New Yorker. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the allegation.
The book revisits Ramirez’s claim and contains a former male classmate’s new allegation which the authors say was corroborated by two sources. The authors reported the former classmate came forward to the FBI and senators concerning an incident he witnessed and said the FBI did not investigate the incident. CNN is not reporting any details related to the allegation because CNN has not independently verified it.
Trump tweeted Sunday that Kavanaugh “should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue.” (The President initially misspelled the word “libel” before deleting the tweet and correcting the word in a subsequent tweet.)
In nominating Kavanaugh, Trump seized a rare opportunity to solidify a conservative majority for a generation on the Supreme Court. The President and those who worked to get Kavanaugh on the bench are now waiting to see if their calculation was correct, and for a sense of how far and how fast the conservative majority will move.
The President’s pick for the Supreme Court faced allegations of sexual misconduct that threatened to derail his confirmation in 2018.
Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor and the first accuser to come forward, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party when they were both teenagers. He has also denied that allegation.
Trump at the time sought to discredit Ford and Ramirez, and said Kavanaugh was “under assault.” He mocked and imitated Ford at a campaign rally, and accused Democrats of masterminding “a con game” against his Supreme Court nominee.
Conservatives throughout the controversy largely stood by Kavanaugh, who was confirmed in October to take former Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat after the vicious approval battle and a 50-48 Senate vote.
2020 Democrats respond
Several Democratic presidential candidates were quick to weigh in Sunday, with some calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment from the high court.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted Kavanaugh should be impeached.
“I sat through those hearings. Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people,” Harris wrote. “He was put on the Court through a sham process and his place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice.”
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro also called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment and for an investigation into the latest allegation.
“Congress should review the failure of the Department of Justice to properly investigate the matter,” Castro said.
In a separate tweet, Castro fired back at Trump’s Sunday comments.
“The Department of Justice isn’t your law firm, or Brett Kavanaugh’s. Even if (Attorney General) Bill Barr acts like your lawyer,” Castro said in reference to Trump’s tweet defending the Supreme Court justice.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday she strongly opposed Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and accused Barr of “shielding documents” related to the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“I strongly opposed him, based on his views on executive power, which will continue to haunt our country, as well as how he behaved, including the allegations that we are hearing more about today,” Klobuchar told ABC.
Klobuchar said the “process was a sham” and added, “I don’t think that you can look at impeachment hearings without getting the documents — the House would have to get the documents — and the Attorney General is shielding documents.”
She said all of the relevant information needs to come forward before considering an impeachment process against Kavanaugh.