The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), on Wednesday compared the “pattern” of allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to those faced by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“These allegations should be thoroughly investigated, and they have credibility,” Nadler told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton. His comments follow a third woman coming forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
“The specific reason they have credibility is that they fit the pattern, and the pattern is that when you find someone like a Harvey Weinstein or someone else who’s very respected and powerful … and is suddenly accused of sexually exploiting women, first one person comes forward, and then another, and then the dam breaks, and you find a number of women coming forward,” he continued.
“That seems to be what’s happening with Judge Kavanaugh. He’s a very powerful judge, who has been nominated to the highest court in the land. Women are going to be very reluctant to upset their own lives by making these accusations and revealing what happened to them,” he said. “But once one comes forward, then a second, and now a third, that fits the pattern of truthful allegations against powerful men.” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]As an extraordinary series of uncorroborated, lurid last-minute allegations threatens to derail his confirmation to the Supreme Court, nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Ford, the California professor accusing him of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago, are set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning.
The proceedings may be upended by late-breaking developments: In a statement released Wednesday evening, Judiciary Committee Republicans revealed that on Monday, they conducted their “first interview with a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982 that is the basis of his [sic] complaint.” They conducted a second interview the next day.
On Wednesday, Republicans said in the statement, they received a “more in-depth written statement from the man interviewed twice previously who believes he, not Judge Kavanuagh, had the encounter in question with Dr. Ford.” GOP investigators also spoke on the phone with another man making a similar claim.
Ford has previously said there is “zero chance” she would have confused Kavanaugh for anyone else.
In response, an aide to Democrats on the Judiciary Committee reportedly unloaded on Senate Republicans: “Republicans are flailing,” the aide said, according to NBC News. “They are desperately trying to muddy the waters. … Twelve hours before the hearing they suggest two anonymous men claimed to have assaulted her. Democrats were never informed of these assertions in interviews, in violation of Senate rules.” – READ MORE
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