WASHINGTON: The Senate Judiciary Committee will let Christine Blasey Ford testify on Thursday about her charge that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
But a new allegation of sexual misconduct has emerged that could further rile Kavanaugh’s nomination. Debbie Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University, accused him of exposing himself at a party when they were both first-year students, the New Yorker magazine reported.
Ramirez, who told the magazine that they both had been drinking, acknowledged some gaps in her memory of the incident, but said she remembered another student shouting Kavanaugh’s name. “I would think an FBI investigation would be warranted,” Ramirez said.
In a statement issued by the White House, Kavanaugh denied the accusation and called it “a smear, plain and simple.”
“I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these last-minute allegations,” he said.
The second claim against Kavanaugh dates to the 1983-84 academic year, which was his first at Yale University. Deborah Ramirez described the incident after being contacted by The New Yorker magazine. She recalled that Kavanaugh exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called for the “immediate postponement” of any further action on Kavanaugh’s nomination.
