Third woman accuses Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct

Judge Brett Kavanaugh was accused Wednesday by another woman of engaging in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s.

The allegation came from Julie Swetnick, 55, who like Kavanaugh, 53, grew up in the Washington suburbs. In a statement posted on Twitter by her lawyer, Swetnick said she observed the future Supreme Court nominee at parties where women were verbally abused, inappropriately touched, made “disoriented” with alcohol or drugs and “gang raped.”

She said she witnessed Kavanaugh participating in some of the misconduct, including lining up outside a bedroom where “numerous boys” were “waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room.” Swetnick said she was raped at one of the parties and she believed she had been drugged.

None of Swetnick’s claims could be independently corroborated by The New York Times, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, declined to make her available for an interview.

President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Avenatti was a “third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations” and suggested he was “just looking for attention.” Avenatti rose to fame through his representation of Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels who has taken on Trump.

The White House issued a statement from the judge describing the allegations as “ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone” and denying that he even knew Swetnick. “I don’t know who this is and this never happened,” the judge’s statement said.

Unlike two other women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, one who went to college with him and another who went to a sister high school, Swetnick offered no explanation in her statement of how she came to attend the same parties, nor did she identify other people who could verify her account.

In a brief interview, Avenatti said he had witnesses who could back up Swetnick’s accounts, but was not ready to present them because he was waiting to see if the Senate Judiciary Committee would begin a full investigation into her claims as he demanded, along with an FBI inquiry. In her statement, Swetnick said she would be willing to appear before the committee.

Avenatti also said he was waiting to hear back from the committee before making Swetnick available for interviews.