WASHINGTON — A third woman has come forward with sexual misconduct claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, contending that he and friend Mark Judge were present at high-school parties where girls were drugged and gang raped.
The accuser, Julie Swetnick, made the claims in an affidavit that was posted online by attorney Michael Avenatti.
In the affidavit, she claims that she witnessed Judge, Kavanaugh and others “cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be “gang raped” in a side room or a bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys.”
“I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room,” she said. “These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.”
Kavanaugh staunchly denied the claims on Wednesday.
“This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened,” he said in a statement.
President Donald Trump tweeted support for Kavanaugh and slammed Avenatti in a tweet.
“Avenatti is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations, like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” he wrote. “He is just looking for attention and doesn’t want people to look at his past record and relationships – a total low-life!”
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On Fox News on Monday, Kavanaugh again denied engaging in such behavior, describing himself as a virgin in high school and saying, “I’ve always treated women with dignity and respect.”
He is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, following the testimony of another of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford. She claims that at a high school party, Kavanaugh pinned her down, groped her and attempted to take off her clothes before she broke free. Kavanaugh denies the incident ever took place.
Swetnick said in the affidavit that in 1982, she was the victim of one of the gang rapes at a party where Kavanaugh and Judge was present.
“During the incident I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me,” she said. “I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.”
She said that other witnesses could verify the truthfulness of her statements.
Democrats seized on the latest claims to press for a slowdown in the confirmation process. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for President Trump to withdraw the nomination or to press for an FBI investigation of the allegations.
In prepared testimony to the committee, Kavanaugh plans to again deny Ford’s accusations and characterize other claims as “false and uncorroborated.”
“There has been a frenzy to come up with something—anything, no matter how far-fetched or odious—that will block a vote on my nomination,” he said in the remarks. “These are last- minute smears, pure and simple.”
He said that he was “not perfect in those days” and “drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes I had too many. In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now.”
“What I’ve been accused of is far more serious than juvenile misbehavior. I never did anything remotely resembling what Dr. Ford describes,” he said.
Ford’s legal team sent four affidavits to the Judiciary Committee signed by her husband and friends and pointing out that she shared the details of the allegations with them before Kavanaugh was chosen by Trump as his Supreme Court nominee.