Kavanaugh denies growing claims of bad behavior

WASHINGTON—Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh defended his reputation on Fox News Monday evening in his first public interview. He denied he ever sexually assaulted anyone and responded to recent accusations relayed by attorney Michael Avenatti that Kavanaugh and his classmates in high school intoxicated women so men could gang rape them.

Kavanaugh, accompanied by his wife, Ashley, called the gang rape accusation “totally false and outrageous” and asked for “a fair process” to defend his integrity. Avenatti sent an email to the Senate Judiciary Committee with the accusations and told Politico he plans to reveal more details before the committee’s hearing takes place Thursday at which Kavanaugh and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, are set to testify. Ford says Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party while they were in high school in the early 1980s.

“I am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps Dr. Ford at some time in her life was sexually assaulted,” Kavanaugh told Fox News. “But what I know is that I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone.” He also said that he was a virgin both in high school and college and for “many years after,” adding, “I think all of us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit. But that’s not what we’re talking about.”

Republicans are calling the recent accusations by Avenatti, Ford, and Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale University classmate who said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a dorm party in the 1980s, a “smear campaign.” Avenatti also represents Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, a woman who claims an attorney for President Donald Trump paid her before the 2016 presidential election not to talk about an alleged affair she had with Trump.

The New York Times published an article Monday about Kavanaugh’s high school years, citing his personal yearbook entry, which includes possible references to drunkenness (“100 Kegs or Bust”) and his membership in an informal club of young men who all dated the same woman, Renate Dolphin. Dolphin was one of 65 women who signed a letter of support for Kavanaugh. After later learning of references to her in Georgetown Preparatory School’s 1983 yearbook, she told the Times, “I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way.”

In a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon, Kavanaugh called the accusations “smears, plain and simple” and said the “last-minute character assassination will not succeed.”

President Donald Trump expressed his support for Kavanaugh Monday night, tweeting, “The Democrats are working hard to destroy a wonderful man, and a man who has the potential to be one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices ever, with an array of False Accusations the likes of which have never been seen before!”

Kavanaugh told Fox News he would not withdraw from the nomination: “I’m not going to let false accusations drive me out of this process. … I have faith in God and I have faith in the fairness of the American people.”